Sir Patrick Moore passed away today, aged 89. Through his many, many books, and TV programmes like The Sky at Night, he became Britain’s foremost populariser of astronomy. It’s safe to say he’s inspired several generations of scientists, showing us the poignant beauty of the heavens and incredible excitement of space exploration, all in his own, unique way.
I have a particularly fond memory of him. When I was quite young, probably around 8 years old, my dad and uncle took me to see Patrick give a lecture at the Victoria Hall in Stoke. I seem to remember that much of it was about Mars, and how astronomers past had mistakenly seen canals and other marks of civilisation on its surface. I still have a copy of a little red book of his, “Into Space!”, lying around somewhere at home, that we bought on the night. We also took my copy of Philip’s Atlas of the Universe (another of his), which he graciously signed for me after the lecture. I can’t remember what he said to me, other than that he’d sprained his wrist, so could only manage to scrawl his initials on the first page! I recall being slightly put out by this, for some reason – perhaps because it looked like someone had randomly scrawled on the book, thus defacing it. (Anyone who knows me will have some appreciation of how cardinal a sin the defacement of a book, however slight, is in my eyes.)
Meeting Patrick was one of a number of important events in my development that happened at around the same time. My dad bought me a little black Tasco refractor, and managed to get a stunning view of Jupiter out of it, one that I couldn’t reproduce myself for many years. A couple of years earlier, he’d woken me up in the middle of the night, literally carrying me out of bed to see a lunar eclipse. My parents had also been indulging me by buying science books, which I absolutely lapped up. One of these was Patrick’s Atlas of the Universe, the one he signed, which I often dipped into. In 1999, there was also a solar eclipse in Britain, only partial in Stoke but reaching totality in Cornwall, which I remember Patrick doing the commentary for.
These events, along with many others of a similar nature over the years, have shaped me both intellectually and personally. Being an astrophysicist is a big part of who I am, and I’m forever grateful to all of the people like Patrick who set me out on this path all those years ago. I only hope I can repay the debt by inspiring others myself.
December 9th, 2012 at 6:34 pm
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December 14th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
sad news patrick moore will be sadly missed but whats to become of his beloved programe the skyat night,will it go on in his memory?
December 19th, 2012 at 11:35 pm
The end of an era, you are now a star yourself up there in the heavens. Perhaps a numbered galaxy should be named after Sir Patrick.
December 24th, 2012 at 6:54 am
From a boy I had always intended to send a question into the show and get Patrick to answer it. Something now that sadly won’t happen! I had it written down and on a wall for 20 years and never got around to sending it in (For the record, are there any plans to send more crafts like the Voyager probes into deep space using the “grand tour” method and how often are the windows of opportunity with the alignments of planets available to do so?) As my old heamaster used to say “Procrastination is not only the thief of time it is the thief of opportunity”
December 27th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Too true. For what it’s worth, it doesn’t look like there will be another alignment of the planets so favourable as the one they used for Voyager for another 140 years or so. There will be other alignments in the mean time that would allow spacecraft to visit some different combination of the planets, but not an exact reproduction of the Voyager mission. There’s also the “Interplanetary Transport Network”, which is a set of trajectories between all the planets that allows spacecraft to get between them with the minimum of energy (read: fuel). Unfortunately those trajectories would result in much longer, slower missions.
The only other recent deep space mission that I can think of is New Horizons. It’s currently on its way to Pluto, where it will arrive in 2015. After that, it’ll head out of the Solar System, via the Kuiper Belt.
January 7th, 2013 at 5:23 pm
Sir Patrick Moore
But he was going to live for ever
Sir Patrick of the skies
The monocle a’glinting
The, oh, so sparkly eyes
That saw great things and told us
So we could see them too
I’m going to miss him, this old man
In fact I already, do.
January 28th, 2013 at 2:15 pm
The day the Aliens Arrived
It was a sunny Monday morning, on my way to work.
When it broke on the news and we all went berserk
There was running and screaming and trying to survive
The world went crazy the day the aliens arrived
They landed in the cities and landed in the towns
When they landed in Australia they landed upside down
Some of the ships were big others were very large
They came from outer space far beyond the stars
Academics and Scientists wanted to see
If they could find away to talk to ET
Then a port opened on one of the ships from space
They were ready to talk to the human race
The Aliens spoke as they came through the door
We’ve come to pay our respects to the late Sir Patrick Moore
From our home planet we began our flight
To come and say thanks for ‘The Sky at Night’
55 Years of his programme we’ve all enjoyed
As it’s beamed out in to space across the interstellar void
A generation of Astronomers he has helped and inspired
About wonders of the universe our imagination he fired
To the heavens he would look, even when it was grey
With the help of Chris, Pete, Paul and Brain May
From Mars to deep space he has seen science go
What he’ll discover next we just don’t know.
February 10th, 2013 at 11:55 am
I shed a tear on the 1 St episode without the great man it was about the Sun, and didn’t he Burn well….I’ll miss you great Man…Stephen Boult