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This month’s Sky At Night is about things we just don’t know about. Patrick is joined by Chris, Kate Land and Prof. Gerry Gilmore to talk about everything from what was before the Big Bang to dark matter and dark energy. The episode covers the topics of inflation as well as the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation and even why we are here at this time in the history of the Universe. You can catch the episode on BBC iPlayer here and again (extended by 10 mins) on various BBC channels.

If you didn’t catch last night’s Sky At Night programme then you should try and watch it in the next 7 days on BBC iPlayer or when it is repeated on BBC 2 this Saturday at 13:30*.

The episode is an hour long special called ‘Return to the Moon’. It covers everything from NASA’s Constellation program, the recent lunar eclipse, the hardware NASA are going to be using, the UK’s MoonLITE experiment and some great exchanges on the history of lunar observing (and of course Sir Patrick’s contribution) between Dr Allan Chapman and Sir Patrick. It really is a great episode and one not to miss.

Oh and if you haven’t already seen it you should check out the latest astounding image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Chris has it over here.

*The BBC’s What’s On listing that I found lists the repeated episode as only 20 minutes long.

Above: NASA’s Orion craft (left) docked with the Altair lunar lander.
Image credit: NASA

The Sky At Night celebrated it’s 50th Anniversary with a party at Sir Patrick Moore’s home in Selsey on the 24th of April this year. Many famous astronomers both amateur and professional from all over the world came to celebrate as well as Dr Piers Sellers (NASA Astronaut) who compered the party. I was lucky enough to be invited too and I can say that it was a very fitting tribute to Sir Patrick and the Sky At Night team. Images © Will Gater 2007