The Sky at Night - Season 53 / Year 2009

Sir Patrick Moore charts the development of the telescope over four centuries and fasts forward to meet the astronaut who repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. Dr Chris Lintott visits some modern day astronomical leviathans.

Referred to by the Scots as the Merry Dancers, the Aurora Borealis have caught the imagination of people across the globe.

Dr Chris Lintott travels to a radar facility in northern Norway to discover how these magical lights are created, while Sir Patrick Moore discusses how our sun calls the tune for the Merry Dancers.

Saturn's mysterious moon Enceladus has startled astronomers with its amazing ice geysers, which spew out material into space. Sir Patrick Moore talks to the scientists who are trying to unlock the secrets of this tiny world.

Dr Chris Lintott visits the Open University to find out the latest on our own Moon. He meets scientists from the Japanese Kaguya mission and the Indian Chandrayaan mission, with its British instrument CIXS.

Patrick Moore discusses what Herschel, Europe's biggest and most expensive space satellite, will do once it begins its infrared exploration of the universe.

Dr Chris Lintott gets a rare chance to see the Herschel mirror, which at 3.5 metres will be the biggest astronomical mirror ever to be sent into space.

Every day, asteroids whizz past the Earth on their journey through space. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the chances of a close encounter with an asteroid, after telescopes recently got a unique view of an asteroid disintegrating in our atmosphere.

Containing trillions of stars, Andromeda is the largest galaxy in our neighbourhood. It is 2.5 million light years away, yet is still visible to the naked eye. Sir Patrick Moore and his guests unravel some of the mysteries in the star systems that surround us and look at the latest discoveries from our local galaxies.

Using archive sound, satellite footage and film taken by the astronauts, Patrick Moore presents the story of mankind's first journey to another world.

29th July 1969 witnessed the culmination of one of the greatest achievements in human exploration when man stepped on the moon. 40 years on, Sir Patrick Moore and his guests reminisce and celebrate the enormous achievements of the whole Apollo program.

On 14th December 1972, Captain Eugene Cernan left the Moon to return to Earth. He had no idea that, 25 years later, he would still be the last man to have left his footprints on the lunar surface. Dr Chris Lintott travels to the Johnson Space Centre to talk to the Commander of Apollo 17 about his memories of being on the Moon. Sir Patrick Moore looks at lunar samples brought back by the astronauts and talks to NASA scientists about what they discovered.

Sir Patrick Moore, with the help of Pete Lawrence and the latest pictures, investigates the longest total eclipse of the sun for many years, which took place in India and China in July 2009.

In orbit around Saturn, the Cassini probe has sent back amazing new images, and there's a new discovery on the moon Enceladus. Chris Lintott reports from the latest Cassini conference in London and finds out why there is a sprinkling of table salt in the rings of Saturn.

In July 2009, a mysterious large object crashed into Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, leaving behind a scar in the gas cloud the size of the Earth. Sir Patrick Moore examines this new feature with Jupiter experts John Rogers and David Rothery. Imaging experts Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel compete to capture the best images of the gas giant, while Chris Lintott has this month's news notes.

Following the Hubble space telescope's overhaul, Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott examine its latest findings and the data from NASA's other telescopes, Spitzer and Chandra. Pete Lawrence observes the spiral galaxies M31 and M33 and explains how they owe their enigmatic names to an 18th-century French comet hunter.

Observers now know there is water on the Moon, but how much? NASA's new LCROSS probe into the lunar surface will find out. Chris Lintott visits the Palomar observatory in California to witness the probe's impact, while Patrick Moore views it with friends from his home in Selsey. Can the Moon really support life?

For centuries, astronomers, writers and philosophers have speculated about life on the planet Mars, but we have learned more about our near neighbour in the last 30 years than at any time in human history. Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott explore the Red Planet.

Winter is approaching, and with longer nights, it is the perfect time to get outside and enjoy the wonders of the night sky. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Dr Chris Lintott and Pete Lawrence, plus a host of stargazers, in a search for the best that the winter skies have to offer.