Patrick Moore in the 1950s; Moore argued against Lord Dowding and other UFO proponents. He was invited to present a live astronomy programme and said the greatest difficulty was finding an appropriate theme tune; the opening of Jean Sibelius's "Pelléas et Mélisande" was chosen and used throughout the programme's existence. The programme was originally named "Star Map" before "The Sky at Night" was chosen in the "Radio Times". On 24 April 1957, at 10:30 pm, Moore presented the first episode about the Comet Arend–Roland. The programme was pitched to casual viewers up to professional astronomers, in a format which remained consistent from
The Sky at Night Lucie Green and Chris Lintott. Since December 2013 Maggie Aderin-Pocock has been a presenter. The programme's opening and closing theme music is "At the Castle Gate", from the incidental music to "Pelléas et Mélisande", written in 1905 by Jean Sibelius, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. The programme covers a wide range of general astronomical and space-related topics. Topics include stellar life cycles, radio astronomy, artificial satellites, black holes, neutron stars and many others. The programme also covers what is happening in the night sky at the time it is being broadcast, especially when