Sir Patrick Moore 1923 - 2012 RIP

Sir Patrick Moore, who presented "The Sky at Night" for 55 years, has died at the age of 89.

He became interested in astronomy at the age of 6 and joined the British Astronomical Association at the age of eleven. He lied about his age to join the RAF at the outbreak of WWII and served as a Flight Lieutenant in Bomber Command. He wore a monocle from an early age because of a genuine eye problem.

He first appeared on TV in 1954 in a debate on the existence of flying saucers, but it was The Sky at Night, first broadcast in 1957, that made him Britain's favourite stargazer. It became the longest running television programme in the world and he only missed one episode in all that time when he went down with food poisoning from eating a dodgy goose egg in 2004.

Despite his eccentric personality, his science was serious and he played a significant role in mapping the moon; indeed, his maps were used by both NASA and the Russian Space Teams. As a reward for his assistance in mapping the Lunar surface the Russians allowed Moore to be the first Westerner to see the photographic results of the Luna 3 probe (what we call the dark side of the moon), and to show them live on air. Less successful was the transmission of the Luna 4 probe, which ran into technical difficulties – it was also around this time that Moore famously swallowed a large fly that flew into his mouth; both episodes were live and so Moore had to continue on regardless. He was later invited to visit the Soviet Union, where he met Yuri Gagarin, the first man to journey into outer space.

He met everybody from Albert Einstein to Neil Armstrong and was estimated to have written over 1,000 scientific publications. He was an accomplished musician and chess player, and a keen cricketer, although in his latter years arthritis curtailed his activities and the programme had to be recorded at his home.

The one sadness in his life was that he never married or had children. His fiancee, a nurse, was killed in a German bombing raid in 1944. He always said that he'd never find anybody to replace her and he never did.

I'll always remember him for being the Gamesmaster, as that was where I first saw him, but seeing him on Sky At Night got me into Astronomy.

Total legend.

RIP

"The road to Good Intentions be paved with Hell"

Sad news indeed, he set the benchmark for budding astronomers everywhere with the Sky At Night, a truely wonderful man and a legend to many. R.I.P Sir Patrick.

And there's me thinking he was going to live forever.

Legend - nuff said. R.I.P.

Sad news.

An inspiration to astronomers and impressionists galore. RIP

He was one of the reasons why i got into science and liked it so much R.I.P Sir Patrick Moore.

Such sad news.
R.I.P Mr Moore,may your Star Shine Bright