The Sky at Night - Season 21 / Year 1977
Season 21 / Year 1977
Network
DatesJan 17, 1977 - Dec 16, 1977
Episodes
Year 1977Episode 130 min
Sirius - The Dog Star
Sirius is now at its best in the evening sky. It is one of our nearest stellar neighbours, and is much more luminous than the sun. It seems to flash all colours but is really a white star, it has a strange, super-dense White Dwarf companion. Patrick Moore and lain Nicolson discuss some of the questions associated with Sirius.
Jan 17, 1977
Year 1977Episode 230 min
Travel In Space And Time
How big is the universe - and does it have a boundary? Distances on the astronomer's scale are very hard to appreciate. Patrick Moore and Dr Ron Maddison discuss them in this programme, and explain how to describe them in everyday terms.
Feb 17, 1977
Year 1977Episode 330 min
The Mapping Of Mercury
First detailed photographs of Mercury, the innermost planet, were obtained by the American space-probe Mariner 10. Maps of Mercury have been drawn from these photographs by Arthur Cross and in this programme he joins Patrick Moore to explain how the maps were made and what they have told us.
Mar 16, 1977
Year 1977Episode 430 min
20th Anniversary Programme
In April 1957 The Sky at Night began. It could not have started at a better time; within months the Space Age opened, with the launch of Sputnik 1, and over the next few years astronomy saw some of the most spectacular advances of all time. Today, 20 years later, men have visited the moon; rockets have flown past the planets and even landed on some of them; new giant telescopes have probed further into the universe than Man has ever done before, and each year brings its new quota of discoveries. Every month, since April 1957, The Sky at Night has presented the changing scene. In this 20th anniversary programme Patrick Moore discusses the past and the future with some of Britain's leading figures in astronomy.
Apr 20, 1977
Year 1977Episode 530 min
The Solar Cycle
Sunspots are known to increase and decrease over an 11-year cycle. We have just passed through a period of minimum solar activity and the sun-spots should now be increasing, but are slow to do so. Patrick Moore and Dr Ron Maddi son discuss the possible causes of this apparent irregularity. in the solar cycle, and talk about some of the other interesting features of the sun's surface.
May 18, 1977
Year 1977Episode 630 min
Uranus - The Second Ringed Planet
For centuries the ringed planet Saturn has been regarded as unique. This year the startling discovery has been reported that Uranus also has a system of rings - though as yet they have not been seen directly. Patrick Moore discusses this new development with Gordon Taylor, of the Royal Greenwich Observatory. who has made special studies of Uranus, and Dr Garry Hunt, who is closely involved with plans for Voyager, the unmanned space-craft due to bypass Uranus in the 1980s.
Jun 15, 1977
Year 1977Episode 730 min
The New Infrared Telescope
This month an important new British telescope has been completed. It is destined to be set up in Hawaii, and it is not an ordinary telescope; it is designed to study infra-red radiation from space, which cannot be seen directly but which is all-important in modern science. Professor Vincent Reddish , Astronomer Royal for Scotland, describes the Hawaiian telescope, and Patrick Moore talks to Professor James Ring about its likely role in infra-red astronomy.
Jul 20, 1977
Year 1977Episode 830 min
The Swan In The Sky
Cygnus, the Swan, is one of the most beautiful of the constellations, and it contains some spectacular objects, including the very luminous Deneb - a star at least
10,000 times more powerful than the Sun-and the lovely coloured double star Albireo. Very recently astronomers have found a new object in Cygnus-a star surrounded by a highly luminous disc from which planets may be in the process of formation. In this programme, Patrick Moore shows where to look for Cygnus, and describes some of the interesting objects on view there.
Aug 10, 1977
Year 1977Episode 930 min
The Voyager Missions
The two Voyager probes to the outer planets are probably the most ambitious of all automatic space-craft launched up to the present time. They should send back important new information about Jupiter, Saturn and their satellites - they may even go on to study Uranus and Neptune before finally leaving the Solar System altogether. Patrick Moore discusses the Voyager projects with Dr Garry Hunt of University College London, who has been involved in the planning of the missions.
Aug 10, 1977
Year 1977Episode 1030 min
Stars Of The Far South
How many people living in Britain have seen the Southern Cross? It never rises over Europe, but it is a familiar sight to those who live in the Southern Hemisphere. The stars of the far south are indeed of special interest, and Patrick Moore talks about them, explaining why they are important and the reasons why they are invisible from Britain. Many of the new giant telescopes are being set up in the Southern Hemisphere to study objects of particular significance, such as the Clouds of Magellan, and in this programme PATRICK MOORE talks about these new developments with Dr David Allen , who is carrying out research at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
Sep 28, 1977
Year 1977Episode 1130 min
The Amateur Astronomer
Astronomy is still one of the few sciences in which the amateur can play a useful part. Paul Doherty , who specialises in planetary observations, is an amateur astronomer who has built his own observatory and 16-inch reflecting telescope. Patrick Moore visits him at his observatory to discuss its construction and the observational work being carried out there.
Oct 24, 1977
Year 1977Episode 1230 min
Why Do Planets Shine?
All the bright planets are now visible in the early morning sky. Some of them seem to outshine the stars, and yet they have no light of their own. They shine only by reflecting the light of the sun. The different ways in which they reflect the sunlight tell us a great deal about the planets themselves. Patrick Moore talks about the reflecting powers of the planets and what they can tell us with Dr Peter Cattermole of Sheffield University.
Nov 23, 1977
Year 1977Episode 1330 min
Sun, Spaceships and Bug-Eyed Monsters
Dec 16, 1977
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