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 • 12 months, 3,741 entries and 10 judges. And the winner is…

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

This month's contributors

HEART OF DARKNESS • A deep look at the 1,000-strong galaxy cluster that gave away the existence of dark matter

Liquid water found on Mars • The water is sandwiched between cracks in the rocks, deep underground

Comment

Has the Hubble tension been solved? • New JWST data may resolve cosmology's big problem

Dinner time for black holes • An orbiting star is shown to be keeping a black hole on a regular snack schedule

Planet's extreme orbit throws light on ‘hot Jupiters’ • The exoplanet has been observed migrating closer to its host star

Meteorites make the Moon's atmosphere • Study shows that the thin exosphere is gas liberated by millennia of bombardment

Gaia recovers from double trouble • The decade-old spacecraft is back in action after a run of bad luck sent it off-line

The tadpoles of Mars • Martian ‘tadpole’ craters could clue geologists in to how Mars lost its water

Building a telescope on the Moon • Now might be the time to plan for an observatory on the lunar surface

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT • In September's episode, The Sky at Night met John McFall at ESA's training facility in Germany. Here he tells us about his work investigating how disabled astronauts like him could fly in space

Looking back: The Sky at Night 18 October 1987

INTERACTIVE • Email us at inbox@skyatnightmagazine.com

BBC Sky at Night

May the course be with you • From Moon golf to ISS baseball, Jonathan Powell looks at the ultimate away game…

Astronomy Photographer of the Year • BBC Sky at Night Magazine is proud to reveal this year's winners in the world's biggest astrophotography competition

The judges

EUROPA CLIPPER Searching for life at Jupiter's icy moon • A new mission is set to launch to hunt for signs of life in the liquid ocean beneath Europa's icy crust. Ben Evans reports

Inhospitable, yet habitable • On the face of it, Europa is a hellish place. So why are we looking for signs of life there?

Dark matter • Apparently everywhere, yet totally invisible, dark matter poses particle physics's greatest puzzle. Govert Schilling investigates

What if there's no dark matter? • Maybe strange kinds of gravity hold the Universe together, not dark matter

MAKE OR BREAK FOR C/2023 A3 TSUCHINSHAN –ATLAS • Will C/2023 A3 be a spectacular naked-eye comet like NEOWISE (pictured)? We'll find out this month

OCTOBER 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

Moon occults southern part of Pleiades • BEST TIME TO SEE: 19 October from 19:30–22:45 BST (18:30–21:45 UT)

A favourable Ganymede shadow transit • BEST TIME TO SEE: 26/27 October, 22:20–04:50 UT

THE PLANETS • Our celestial neighbourhood in October

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 • You'll need to star-hop to spot rocky Massalia

STAR OF THE MONTH • This month, it's horizon-hugger Fomalhaut

BINOCULAR TOUR • Wanted dead or...