The Sky at Night - 1981 (1981)

Palomar Patrick Moore visits Mount Palomar in South California to see the great 200-inch telescope, and talks to the scientists who use the largest working telescope in the world.

The Orion nebula is one of the most famous objects in the sky. It is visible with the naked eye as a hazy patch in Orion's sword; small telescopes show it well, but we now know that it is only part of a vast mass of gas and dust in which fresh stars are being born, Inside it are some remarkable objects whose nature is still uncertain. One of the astronomers who is carrying out research into these fascinating mysteries is Dr John Beckman, who talks to Patrick Moore about the latest news from this 'stellar birthplace'.

Patrick Moore tells the story of William Herschel, the obscure Hanoverian army bandsman whose discovery with a home-made telescope of the planet Uranus doubled the size of the known solar system. Herschel was hired to provide 'astronomical entertainment' for the British Royal Family and King George III gave him £4,000 to build the world's largest telescope in a garden at Slough.

What can be seen in the night sky this month? Patrick Moore describes the stars which are on view during April; he also shows the latest maps of Saturn's satellites drawn up from Voyager I pictures, and discusses the recent discovery of three galaxies so remote that their light takes about 10,000 million years to reach us.

In the crystal-clear atmosphere of La Palma in the Canary Islands the new Northern Hemisphere Observatory is being built. This observatory, a joint international project, is designed to study galaxies so remote that their light takes thousands of millions of years to reach us, leading us on to a real knowledge of the way in which the universe was born. One of the scientists involved is Professor F. Graham Smith , Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, who talks to Patrick Moore.

Neptune, the outermost of the giant planets, has been known for well over a century, but our knowledge of it is still meagre. With its gaseous surface, its quick rotation and its large satellite, Triton, it is of tremendous interest. Patrick Moore and Dr Garry Hunt discuss what is known about Neptune and what future researches may tell us when Voyager 2 passes this ' outermost giant' in 1989.

What are the chances of the Earth being hit by an asteroid - another and much smaller world orbiting the Sun? Just over 40 years ago the Earth was nearly in collision with an asteroid called Hermes. Statistically the danger of a collision is slight, but by no means nil. In America the NASA authorities have announced plans for destroying any approaching asteroid with a nuclear missile. Can we predict the possibility of a collision? In this programme Patrick Moore discusses the whole question of asteroid collisions with Dr David Hughes of Sheffield University.

During summer evenings many interesting constellations are on view. There are also some spectacular double stars, most of them are binary systems in which the components are physically associated. Patrick Moore surveys the evening sky during the summer, and points out some double stars which may be seen with any small telescope.

Meteors, or shooting stars, space debris shed by comets travelling round the sun, can produce brilliant displays and the Perseids, seen each year between 27 July and 17 August, are unusually spectacular. They are of special interest during the early 1980s, because the comet associated with them - Swift-Tuttle - is due back having been unobserved for 120 years. Patrick Moore talks to John Mason , who led an expedition to France to study the Perseids, and looks forward to the return of Halley's Comet, which also is associated with meteor showers.

On 25 August the American spacecraft Voyager 2 made its pass of Saturn, and told us more about the unexpectedly complicated ring-system, the surface of the Planet, and the puzzling family Of satellites.

Three weeks ago Professor Sir Bernard Lovell retired as Director of the radio astronomy observatory at Jodrell Bank, where the 250-foot 'dish' opened up new methods of studying the universe; its design and its setting-up were due almost entirely to Sir Bernard, and in this programme he talks to Patrick Moore about the story of Jodrell Bank as well as his hopes for the future of astronomy.

Pegasus, the flying horse, is the main autumn constellation - but do you know where to find it? Can you see Mars now - and if so. where is it? Where should one look for the Great Spiral in Andromeda, a huge system containing more than 100,000-milIion suns? Patrick Moore conducts a tour of the autumn sky.