The Sky at Night

Patrick Moore talks about some of the strange celestial objects, like the planet Vulcan, which have been reported at times but do not in fact seem to exist.

Frank Hyde discusses with Patrick Moore the progress of his radio-astronomy station's observations in collaboration with Florida State University to try to determine whether the radio emissions from Jupiter originate there or are reflected from the sun.

The recent flight of Ranger VI came near to solving the age-old problem of the nature of the Moon's surface. Patrick Moore reports on the present situation and its significance to astronomers.

For ages man has used the stars to navigate by Patrick Moore discusses with Henry Brinton some of the new problems of celestial navigation which the space traveller has to face.

The Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland is the oldest observatory still in use in the Commonwealth. Yet the work being done there on the structure of galaxies is in the forefront of contemporary research. Dr. E. M. Lindsay, the director, describes the Observatory's activities to Patrick Moore, as well as showing him round the eighteenth-century building and its historic possessions.

Patrick Moore reports on the New York International Symposium on the Structure of the Moon's Surface, at which he himself read one of the technical papers.

The accurate astronomical alignment of Stonehenge, notorious on Midsummer Day, contrasts with ancient Egyptian theories that the sun and planets revolved round the earth. Patrick Moore and Henry Brinton discuss the historical theories, some odd, some prescient, which have tried to explain the universe.

Quasi stellar objects, quasars for short, is the description given to a recently discovered and puzzling new kind of body in the universe. Patrick Moore discusses with Colin Ronan these very remote and powerful sources of radio emissions.

Commenting on reported changes in the yellow colouring of the planet Saturn, Patrick Moore discusses the colours a telescope reveals in the night sky.

The minor planet Vesta is now visible in the evening sky. Patrick Moore talks about the swarm of dwarf worlds in the solar system which may be the remains of an old planet which met with disaster.

Patrick Moore and Henry Brinton discuss the current scientific evidence as to when the earth came into existence as a separate body in the solar system.