Millions were expected to watch the third annual instalment of the BBC’s Stargazing Live this week.

Fronted by Britain’s favourite science celeb, Professor Brian Cox, with backing from funnyman Dara O Briain, the show drew nearly four million viewers last year, beating the ratings of all other channels.

But its impact reached far beyond viewing figures. Online retail giant Amazon reported a staggering 500 per cent surge in telescope sales following last January’s programme, attributing the boom to the “Brian Cox effect”.

The same phenomenon has been credited for a swell in applications for physics degree courses. But can just one man be responsible for attracting a nation to astronomy?

Mandy Bailey is a member of the Society for Popular Astronomy and the only West Midlands member on the society’s council.

Mandy, who is taking a PhD in interstellar medium (which she kindly explains as “the stuff between the stars”), says: “I remember I was about eight years old and we had the Readers’ Digest Atlas of the World because my dad thought I should learn every capital in every country.

“But at the back were these two star maps and I thought ‘I’m going to find these’. By sheer chance our house was south-facing, it was winter and Orion was out and clear. I had found my first constellation.”

The society was founded by the late Sir Patrick Moore exactly 60 years ago as a forum for beginners, to make astronomy more accessible to the general public. And Mandy thinks Stargazing Live is just the latest in a long run of inspirational astronomy programmes and events over the decades that have attracted a new wave of astronomers.

“A lot of people working in professional astronomy now were inspired by the moon landings,” she says, “and when the Hubble telescope went up in 1990 and we started getting these wow factor pictures back. That really captured people’s imaginations.

“Now Stargazing Live is really pushing it out again to the masses and local astronomical societies have grown as a result.”

New equipment and the world wide web have also played a part.

“Astronomy has become much more accessible because of the internet,” says Mandy. “Social media means people have been able to share pictures, ask questions and arrange ‘tweet-ups’, meeting up and talking about things that interest them.”

And just as “citizen journalism” has changed the face of the media, “citizen science” has put crucial research and discoveries at the fingertips of anyone with an internet connection.

As a result, important discoveries are being made by ordinary people sitting at laptops, such as Hanny’s Voorwerp, an object the size of the Milky Way with a huge central hole 16,000 light years across, discovered by Dutch school teacher and amateru astronemer Hanny van Arkel.

But some astronomy fans feel there’s not enough frivolity in the field.

One such stargazer, Gaz Colville, of Baginton, has teamed with other amateur astronomers to launch online forum Astronomy For Fun.

He said: “We were in another group but it was all very serious and we wanted something more light-hearted. We are all amateurs. None of us are professional. We do it because it’s fun and we love it!”

The group was launched on Facebook four months ago and is already approaching 300 members, with more than 100 more on Twitter.

Gaz, 40, and the rest of the group’s founders are currently taking an astronomy course – their first venture into the academic side of the subject.

He says: “Some of us are finding it pretty heavy going. Astronomy’s about maths and physics and we are not really interested in that. That’s for academics. We want to know what’s out there, what’s in the night sky.

“Amateur astronomers like myself have always watched The Sky At Night and read Patrick Moore’s books but Brian Cox has really made it more accessible, attracting people that weren’t already interested. He breaks it down so that everybody can understand it.”

He adds: “I just love looking up. My fiancé must be going nuts because I walk around looking at the moon and going ‘Wow, beautiful’. I can’t help it!

“If you have any sort of passion at all seeing something like Saturn’s rings will just leave you in awe.”