INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

July marks a milestone for Chris Lintott - 25 years appearing on The Sky at Night. Here he reflects on cosmic discoveries and standout moments from his time on the show

- Chris Lintott

I find it hard to believe it's been 25 years since I appeared on The Sky at Night for the first time. A scared student in a new suit, I'd been invited by Patrick to discuss viewers' questions, which ranged from 'Why are there seasons?' to 'What, precisely, is dark energy?'. While some of the questions are the same today, everything else is different.

For starters, the show back then was filmed in the corner of a vast studio at BBC Television Centre in west London, with camera operators gliding around and instructions from the producers in our ears.

As the cameras got smaller, we moved to Patrick's home, Farthings, and for many years we've travelled the world (well, mostly the UK). But what has changed in astronomy in 25 years?

Professional astronomy has gone multi-messenger, with researchers regularly combining results from gravitational wave observatories and studies of particles like neutrinos with traditional techniques.