The Sky at Night: 1986
Season 30 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of The Sky at Night Season 29.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 30 Progress Shield
Our Nearest Star
Jan 11, 1986
How much is known about the sun? We know that it is a huge nuclear furnace that sends out electrified particles, which affect the tails of comets and much else. But there is still
Voyager to Uranus
Feb 4, 1986
The Voyager 2 probe by-passed the planet Uranus on 24 January. Though discovered in 1781, not much had been found out about Uranus - in many ways a mysterious world, with a strange
Halley's Comet: The Encounter
Mar 13, 1986
Tonight's news from the comet comes as Europe's Giotto spacecraft plunges deep into the glowing dust and gases of its coma. At 47 miles per second, every grain of dust strikes like
The Spring Sky
Apr 6, 1986
By spring evenings the brilliant winter constellations have vanished into the twilight, but there is still plenty to see. Patrick Moore talks about the spring constellations such
The Story of Satum
Apr 27, 1986
When the planet Saturn was first examined telescopically in 1610, it was believed by Galileo to be a triple world. Patrick Moore shows what can be seen this month, while Saturn is
Halley - The End of the Tale?
May 25, 1986
Two months ago the Giotto spacecraft passed through the head of Halley's Comet. It sent back the only close-range pictures ever taken of a nucleus, and more information about come
The Summer Sky
Jun 29, 1986
This is a favourable time for planetary enthusiasts, as all the bright planets are on view. There are also brilliant southern stars, such as the Scorpion with its red leader Antare
The Death of a Star
Jul 27, 1986
The southern galaxy Centaurus A is a peculiar system, crossed by a dark dust-lane. In it an Australian amateur astronomer has found a supernova - a colossal stellar outburst involv
The Innermost Planet
Aug 17, 1986
Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, is always difficult to study from earth, but it is at its best in the morning sky this month. So far the only space-probe to have bypassed i
The Furthest Depths of the Universe
Sep 14, 1986
Astronomers in Australia have just announced the discovery of the most remote object known to science. It is a quasar - an object whose nature is not known with certainty but which
The Autumn Sky
Oct 12, 1986
Autumn skies may be less brilliant than those of other seasons, but there is plenty of interest. In this programme Patrick Moore discusses the main features, with special reference
Cosmic Lawn Sprinkler
Nov 10, 1986
The unique object known to astronomers at SS433 looks at first sight like a dim star, but has proved to be as bizarre as anything known. Jets of material spreading out from it are
The Galilean Moons
Dec 21, 1986
Jupiter is now prominently visible in the evening sky. Any telescope will show it together with its four large satellites, known as the Galileans because they were studied in 1610