Science
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
The Royal Observatory Greenwich An untold history
As it celebrates its 350th anniversary, Emily Winterburn uncovers some of the hidden figures - from instrument-makers to YouTubers - behind one of the world's earliest official astronomy institutions
8 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
FIELD OF VIEW
When you consider the infinitesimal chance of humans evolving, life becomes one of the Universe's rarest, most precious things
2 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
THE PLANETS
Our celestial neighbourhood in August
3 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
BINOCULAR TOUR
Discover a stick man flexing his biceps, a golden giant and the sublime Double Cluster
2 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
THE BIG THREE
The top sights to observe or image this month
4 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Dark matter
The mysterious force we can't see... and astronomers can’t even agree is there
3 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
DEEP-SKY TOUR
Faint Camelopardalis is hiding some tricky-to-spot deep-sky gems. Can you find all six?
3 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
THE DARK CHAMAELEON
A closer look at a star factory cloaked in shadow on Earth's doorstep
2 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
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
3 min |
August 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
the Tracking stars
Ancient skywatchers of the Four Corners
7 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
How to take calibration frames
Stop noise, dust and vignette messing up your DSLR astro images
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
O&A WITH A FILAMENT FINDER
Researchers looking at the centre of our Galaxy have discovered a first: long, slim filaments made not of dust but gas, and forged by powerful shockwaves
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
How to photograph NLCs for science
Noctilucent clouds are fleeting and mysterious - if you catch them, your data can be useful
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Chandra Uncovering the high-energy Universe
The world's most powerful X-ray telescope has been changing our understanding of space for a quarter of a century. Jane Green celebrates Chandra's achievements through some of its most spectacular images
5 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Sky-Watcher Heliostar 76Ha telescope
Holding out for a first-rate solar scope at an affordable price? The wait may be over
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Who really invented the telescope?
No, it wasn't Galileo. Govert Schilling untangles the tale of astronomy's greatest creation, and recounts what happened next
7 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Diffraction spikes
Stars don't actually have spikes, but that's how we see them thanks to bending light
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Make a stunning skyscape
Combine the night sky and landscape to brilliant effect
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Signs point to Planet 9
We may have found the first direct evidence of a ninth major planet in the Solar System
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
JWST finds frozen water in a young star system
Long-awaited discovery finds crystalline water-ice in star's debris disc
1 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Pluto: 10 years on
The New Horizons fly-by of this ancient, icy world continues to surprise a decade later. So what have we learned? Ben Evans investigates
8 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Battle of the Big Bang
About 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe burst forth from an infinitely dense inferno, started to expand and cool, and is still expanding to this day. The Big Bang is “science's earliest memory”, as authors Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper point out in this new book, so it's natural to ask what happened before it. But you may have been told that this is a daft question, because if time began at the Big Bang, then there can be no ‘before’. Battle of the Big Bang is here to debunk this myth and guide the reader between public perception and what cosmologists believe today.
1 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT
In June, The Sky at Night celebrated 350 years of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. George Dransfield talks time and how the clock rules her own astronomy
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Universe could end sooner than we think
New model suggests Hawking radiation is speeding cosmic decay
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Starpoint Australis Octans portable observatory
A pitch-perfect solution if you love travelling to dark-sky sites for astronomy
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Alyn Wallace's legacy shines over the Elan Valley
A new memorial to one of Wales's most talented astrophotographers has a special place in the landscape
2 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Memories of Hale-Bopp
Three decades on, Stuart Atkinson vividly recalls the wonder of witnessing the last Great Comet
3 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Mystery of Jupiter's luminous aurorae solved
High-energy particles trigger ultra-bright dancing lights in Jupiter's atmosphere
1 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Soviet spacecraft plunges to Earth after 53 years
Decades after its aborted Venus mission, Kosmos 482 crashes into Indian Ocean
1 min |
July 2025
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
Early 'Hot DOG' is crammed full of gas
Infrared reveals young galaxy has far more mass than expected
2 min |