The Sky at Night the 55 years of Moore's tenure that he did not host the programme. Brian May, the Queen guitarist and astrophysicist, has been a guest on the show from time to time. On 1 April 2007, Moore presented the 50th Anniversary edition of the show, a special "time travel" edition which included the appearance of Jon Culshaw as Moore's younger self. The 50th anniversary programme was filmed at Teddington Studios as the 1957 home of the programme, Lime Grove Studios, had been demolished in 1992. On 6 March 2011, Moore presented the 700th edition of the show, a special retrospective episode
Television in the Republic of Ireland launched in 1990 and the two merged to form British Sky Broadcasting in 1990. For most of the 1990s however, Sky's DBS customer base in Ireland was dwarfed by the large numbers receiving its channels via cable. Sky Digital, Ireland's first digital television service, launched in October 1998. However, in the absence of any subsidy for the Sky Digibox in Ireland – viewers in the UK could avail of both a Sky subsidy and one from British Interactive Broadcasting – the cost to initially acquire Sky Digital equipment was very expensive (IEP 450) and subscriber numbers did not rise until