Patrick Moore may have had unappealing political and social views, but his programmes and books and enthusiasm made an impression on nearly every child in my generation in the UK. (Or do I mean boy?) He was eccentric, like Pluto. He was never Astronomer Royal. Was he trying to look like GK Chesterton? Sky at Night music from Sibelius’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
December 9 2012 at 2:02 pm
… which I presume he wants played at his funeral.
The first BBC Sky at Night television broadcast took place on April 24 1957, six months before the launch of Sputnik and the start of the Space Age.
December 9 2012 at 3:46 pm
BBC video:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20657939
Sky at Night highlights:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12612976
He wasn’t far right. He was little English, with a Tory independence of mind and “not the slightest wish to integrate with anybody” (Autobiography).
Big universe, little England.
December 9 2012 at 11:06 pm
Patrick Moore bibliography:
http://www.astronomynow.com/mag/1007/PatrickMooreBooks.html