BBC Sky at Night

Sky at Night magazine is your practical guide to astronomy. Each issue features the world’s biggest and best night sky guide complete with star charts, observing tutorials and in-depth equipment reviews to ensure that amateur astronomers never miss those must-see events.

Welcome • Is there life on Mars? We’ve been asking for centuries

Sky at Night – lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

This month's contributors

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THE DARK CHAMAELEON • A closer look at a star factory cloaked in shadow on Earth’s doorstep

New bangs are the largest since the Big One • Astronomers spot biggest space explosions ever discovered

JWST spies two eccentric exoplanets • Sand-like clouds and a possible moon-forming disc spotted around distant worlds

Another Moon crash for Japanese lunar lander • The spacecraft Resilience failed to touch down on the Moon after a sensor malfunction

JWST uncovers most distant galaxy so far • Galaxy MoM-z14 traces back to just 280 million years after the Big Bang

Solar orbiter snaps Sun's south pole • European Space Agency probe beams back first images and video of the Sun from a never-before-seen angle

Mega-map offers a new window on the Universe • Interactive survey features 800,000 galaxies across all of cosmic time

Aromatic compound in deep space is biggest yet • Astronomers uncover a large hydrocarbon molecule in a cold, dark molecular cloud

Solar raindrops snapped in Sun's corona • A new imaging system has produced astonishing pictures of our star

Are near-Earth rocks Moon-made? • New findings suggest that our Moon gave birth to more objects in space than we realise

Young black holes had a growth spurt • JWST’s infrared eye pinpoints when the cosmic giants stopped growing

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

Queen of Pulsars

Make art, not waste

BBC Sky at Night

The odds say no… yet here we are • When you consider the infinitesimal chance of humans evolving, life becomes one of the Universe’s rarest, most precious things, says Mark Westmoquette

The Royal Observatory Greenwich An untold history • As it celebrates its 350th anniversary, Emily Winterburn uncovers some of the hidden figures – from instrumentmakers to YouTubers – behind one of the world’s earliest official astronomy institutions

Charting the heavens to rule the seas • Astronomers were crying out for an observatory – the navigation problem made it happen

Key moments in Royal Observatory history

From canals to Curiosity The search for life on Mars • Mars has long ignited our imagination. Ben Evans traces the history of our quest for life on the fourth rock from the Sun

Location, location, location • If life did exist on Mars, these five regions are our best bet of finding proof

Martian myths • Strange faces, canal systems and Earth invaders: five fantastical visions of Mars that exist only in our imagination

The sting in the stars • Mark Hardaker is your guide to the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion, a fascinating spectacle of the summer months

The Sky Guide • AUGUST 2025

AUGUST HIGHLIGHTS • Your guide to the night sky this month

NEED TO KNOW • The terms and symbols used in The Sky Guide

THE BIG THREE • The top sights to observe or image this month

THE PLANETS • Our celestial neighbourhood in August

The planets in August • The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is shown with south at the top, to show its orientation...