Patrick Moore

Sad new today about the death of Sir Patrick. An honourable man who inspired many from different generations.

Last night I stayed up late watch 'Sky at Night' about Mercury and Apollo 17. The last programme as we know it.
I have watched Sky at Night since I was little back in the 60's and 70's. When I was about 9 years old my Dad bought me a telescope for Christmas. It was a lovely little telescope!
I watched the Apollo 11 landing and walked on the Moon with Patrick Moore and his team. I now have the DVD of the whole thing.  Patrick was an eccentric scientist a bit like the Doc in 'Back to the Future' but he was able to explain even the most complex systems into language that even children can understand. He also had an amazing sense of humour, I remember the Christmas 'Morcambe and Wise Show' with Patrick in it.

Eric Morcambe once said "You can see Patrick Moore on a clear night" Now you can...look to the stars!

Patrick died during the 40th anniversary of Apollo 17 and also in the same year as Neil Armstrong.

The life of Sir Pat:

Sir Patrick Moore

"My education was disjointed. The plan was Prep. School, Eton, Cambridge - I never made any of them. During my boyhood I was handicapped by heart trouble; I managed my Cambridge entrance exams externally, but then came the war, and I joined the RAF as a navigator with Bomber Command (I admit that I wasn't 100% honest about my age or fitness, but when I was found out it no longer mattered, and Flight-Lieutenant Caldwell-Moore was not even told that he had been a naughty boy). At the end of the war I returned home, then to East Grinstead. Cambridge was still open to me, but it meant taking a Government grant, which went against the grain. I prefer to stand on my own feet.

My interest in astronomy went back to the age of 7, and I had several slices of luck; a small observatory was near me, I was able to use it, and I published my first paper (about the Moon) when I was 13. After the war, I wrote a book about the Moon; it caught on, and writing took over my life - farewell, Cambridge! I set up my own observatory, first at East Grinstead and then Selsey, and since then I have been a freelance writer.

My aim was to spread interest about astronomy; in 1957 I began my TV series The Sky at Night, now in its 54th year of an unbroken run. Many leading astronomers and astronauts have joined me. I hope I have achieved my object, but that must be left for others to judge. I have been over most of the world, from Antarctica to Death Valley, so I have seen a great deal.

I won't bore you with personal details. Suffice to say that Lorna, whom I was to marry, was killed by a German bomb when we were both twenty (1943!) and so I remain, very sadly, a bachelor. My mother, to whom I was devoted, stayed with me; she died in 1981. I am now 88, and not very mobile, again thanks to the War. But until the age of 78 I was still playing cricket. I am well looked after in my Selsey home - and do not forget my two all-important cats, Jeannie and Ptolemy!"