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 • From 6,000 entries to 11 jaw-droppers…

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

This month’s contributors

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SUPERNOVA CENTRAL • Hubble revisits a spiral galaxy that’s witnessed two supernovae in recent years

Possible planet found at Alpha Centauri A • If true, it would be the closest exoplanet ever found in a habitable zone

Titan’s lakes could form protocells • Study shows conditions are right to create vesicles, key structures in the origin of life

First female Astronomer Royal appointed • Professor Michele Dougherty has led landmark space missions to Saturn and Jupiter

Earliest black hole discovered • The supermassive black hole dates from just 500 million years after the Big Bang

JWST decodes the chaos behind paint-splash nebula • A companion star may be sculpting tangled NGC 6072, a rare multipolar planetary nebula

Betelgeuse’s companion star confirmed • Century-old mystery solved with direct detection of a binary to the famous variable star

UK Space Agency to be streamlined • It will join the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology by April 2026

Bridge of stray stars revealed • Dark Energy Camera image of galaxy cluster Abell 3667 brings cosmic history into focus

How to find a speck in space • New Horizons proves stellar parallax can locate a probe in the vastness, using the light of just two stars

Why the Blaze star is keeping us waiting • New modelling reveals why famous nova T CrB hasn’t blown - yet

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT • September’s Sky at Night episode tackled the Hubble constant. George Dransfield considers how some of the cornerstones of science aren’t as rock-solid as we thought

The Sky at Night OCTOBER

Orkney’s twilight spectacle

BBC Sky at Night

Let there be less light • Light pollution, poor sleep hygiene and overstimulation are pushing our bodies out of sync. Mark Westmoquette explains why darkness matters now more than ever

FIRST CONTACT Seven missions that gave us our first real look at alien worlds • It’s half a century since humanity captured the first images from the surface of an alien world. Giles Sparrow explores the pioneering missions that have brought us face with our Solar System neighbours

Venera 9 on Venus: 53 minutes in hell

Mariner 4 puts Mars on TV

Viking 1: stills from the Martian surface

Luna 3: first glimpse of the Moon’s far side

Huygens on Titan: touchdown on Saturn’s moon

New Horizons: postcard from Pluto

Philae on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: bouncing onto a comet

Astronomy Photographer of the Year • BBC Sky at Night Magazine is thrilled to reveal the 2025 winners in the globe’s premier astrophotography contest

The Sky Guide • OCTOBER 2025

OCTOBER HIGHLIGHTS • Your guide to the night sky this month

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

THE PLANETS • Our celestial neighbourhood in October

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

THE NIGHT SKY - OCTOBER • Explore the celestial sphere with our Northern Hemisphere all-sky chart

MOONWATCH • October’s top lunar feature to observe

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS • Got a small scope? Follow 12 Victoria as she brightens

STAR OF THE...