The Sky at Night - 2006

In and exclusive interview for The Sky at Night, Patrick Moore talks to Mike A'Hearn, the NASA scientist behind the spectacular Deep Impact mission. With amazing precision, he sucessfully designed an impactor to hir the fast moving coment Tempel-1. Its success has revealed new information about our Solar System.

The volcanic mountain of Mauna Kea in Hawaii is home to some of the world's best astronomical obvervatories. At 14,000 feet, it's well above cloud level, giving astronomers the best view of the Universe they can get. Chris Lintott looks around the telescopes, whilst Patrick Moore speaks to the British Scientists who use them for their research.

Patrick Moore presents a guide to the most familiar body in the night sky, whilst Chris Lintott gives tips on how to observe the moon.

Tips on finding Saturn; Patrick talks to Prof John Zarnecki about the latest from the Cassini mission.

Patrick Moore offers advice on how to observe the sun and its many brilliant features. Chris Lintott demonstrates how to split light into a spectrum.

A total eclipse of the Sun is a magnificent event. On 29 March 2006, Chris Lintott hopes to experience a Turkish delight, as a total eclipse of the Sun passes over the coastal resort of Antalya. In the UK, the Moon only partially blocks the Sun, but Patrick Moore hopes to catch a glimpse of one of nature's great events.

Look into the night sky and even with the naked eye you can pick out our nearest galactic neighbour, Andromeda, just one of the billions of systems which make up our Universe. Patrick Moore discusses how galaxies are formed and investigates just how we can trace their mysterious dark matter. Chris Lintott takes his telescope outside to give advice on where to find the brightest and the best galaxies, and what to look for.

The biggest and most powerful explosions in the Universe are gamma ray bursts. With the launch of the spacecraft Swift, scientists now realise these exotic phenomena are far more varied than first suspected. Sir Patrick Moore finds out about the biggest bangs since the 'Big' one, while Chris Lintott tracks down the supernova hunters.

Out of chas came order, as from the dust and gas of the very early Solar System emerged the gas giants. Four billion years ago our solar system looked quite different to the one we see today with Uranus and Neptune much closer to the Sun and regularly swapping orbits. Patrick Moore discusses how these wandering giannts came to be flung to the icy outer regions of our solar system whilst outside Chris Lintott takes a closer look at the largest of them all - Jupiter.

Britain is going back to Mars onboard the European ExoMars mission. UK scientists have a key role designing and building many of the instruments, including the innovative Life Marker Chip. In this special programme, Patrick Moore finds out how we hope to find Martian life whilst Chris Lintott goes in search of the rover that will be climbing mountains on Mars.

SMART-1 project scientist Bernard Foing on the spacecraft's pioneering technology; Chris looks at the STEREO and Solar-B missions to the Sun.

What to look for over the next few months; Lucie Green visits the Autumn Equinox star party at Kelling Heath; Chris talks to cosmologist Jim Gunn.

The latest findings of Venus Express, currently scrutinising Earth's 'evil twin' Venus, known for its searing temperatures.

Patrick finds out how scientists are making sounds and music from the changes within stars. Chris Lintott looks at variable stars.