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 • Are we the only example of life among all those suns?

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

This month’s contributors

FREE BONUS CONTENT

A FLEETING GLIMPSE • Gas clouds briefly glow pink, thanks to blasts from this galaxy’s live-fast-die-young blue stars

Killer supernovae devastated life on Earth - twice • Nearby star deaths may have caused two of our planet’s mass extinctions

Saturn gains 128 new moons • The moons have probably only existed for 100 million years

NASA fires chief scientist • The move could signal a shift from science to exploration

Study uncovers why the Red Planet is red • Mars may have taken on its rusty colour when oceans still covered the planet’s surface

Earth welcomes ‘stranded’ space duo • The pair unexpectedly spent nine months longer than intended on the ISS

March sees Moon double-landing • While one craft operated for a full mission, the other lasted only a few hours

The star that won’t stop exploding • Every four years, the white dwarf detonates in one of the most violent ways ever seen

Mars’s mystery moon • While testing its instruments, Hera got a rare look at Deimos

Would aliens find Earth? • Researchers ask how far away an alien civilisation could be to detect our planet

Blowing up the Crab Nebula • Pulsar winds may drive the expansion of the 1,000-year-old supernova

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT • George Dransfield recently joined The Sky at Night as one of the team of presenters. She tells us what it’s like working on one of the BBC’s longest-running science shows

Looking back: The Sky at Night 26 May 1984

Secrets of the Red Planet

Chasing asteroids

BBC Sky at Night

Stargazing without stars • Even if clouds stop play, you can still make a cosmic connection, says Eva Adorisio

Tianwen-2 Unravelling the secrets of asteroids • China is set to mount the latest mission to retrieve a sample of an asteroid and bring it home. Stuart Atkinson investigates

China’s planetary ambitions • The nation is becoming an increasingly important space power

Seven major asteroid missions • Previous spacecraft that have paid a visit to an asteroid

50 years of the European Space Agency • As Europe’s organisation for space exploration marks five decades since its foundation in May 1975, Anita Chandran looks at key moments in its history

ESA’s future missions • Planning is already under way for the next 50 years of European space missions

How animals use the stars • The animal world is intricately entwined with the night sky. Naturalist Megan Shersby looks at some fascinating ways that animals take their cues from the cosmos

The Sky Guide • MAY 2025

MAY 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 May

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

MOONWATCH • May’s top lunar feature to observe

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS • Use a small scope to track minor planet 9 Metis

STAR OF THE MONTH • Heze, a Virgo star that’s moving south

BINOCULAR TOUR • Discover full-to-bursting glitter ball clusters and one of the reddest stars you’ll see

THE SKY...