For the first six series, the show was broadcast from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire,[1] and featured live links from scientific facilities in locations such as Hawaii, South Africa, and Norway.

The first series was scheduled to coincide with the partial Solar eclipse of 4 January 2011,[1] a conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus, and the Quadrantid meteor shower.

[2] To coincide with each series of the show, hundreds of Stargazing Live events were run across the UK, including star parties and 'sidewalk astronomy' sessions.

[9] The fourth series appeared in January 2014, with the citizen science project asking viewers to look for evidence of gravitational lensing in deep space photographs, which resulted in the discovery of dozens of previously unknown galaxies.

The series also featured live broadcasts from Norway with the aim of capturing the aurora borealis on camera; although the show's publicity emphasised that the unpredictable nature of the aurora meant this attempt could easily fail, an unexpectedly large coronal mass ejection that week resulted in strong auroral activity, with live footage of the phenomenon being captured on all three nights.

[13] On 6 November 2015, the BBC confirmed two special episodes of Stargazing Live which aired on 15 December 2015, with Dara Ó Briain and Professor Brian Cox, covering the launch of Expedition 46 to the International Space Station with British astronaut Tim Peake aboard.

[14] Simultaneously the BBC confirmed a sixth series of Stargazing Live, which began in January 2016, featuring coverage of Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station.

They also look at the most exciting new developments and, with privileged access, they broadcast from the top of launch tower that is being prepared for crewed missions and from the assembly line of a spacecraft factory.

It featured a Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously observing an object in the night sky, when approximately 40,000 registered citizens watched the moon for 10 minutes on 23 May.

Each episode of this series was immediately followed by Stargazing Live: Back to Earth, in which Brian, Dara and their guests discuss the subjects raised in the main show.