A knight’s tale To step inside Moore’s house in Selsey, England, Visiting Britain’s legendary is to walk through decades of astronomical Pete Lawrence Pete The weather vane at his home in Selsey has history. Patrick Moore become an iconic symbol of Sir Patrick Moore in With countless books and a 55-year-old monthly TV program, Britain’s astronomy community. Sir Patrick Moore is synonymous with the wonders of the cosmos and British eccentricity. by Stuart Clark Of cats and planets sound-bite sentences and uttered with a dry To step inside Moore’s house in Selsey, Eng- sense of old English humor. Although the land, is to walk through decades of astro- voice is quieter now, and occasionally a little nomical history. Everywhere you look, tremulous, his delivery is unmistakable. books, photos, or other memorabilia com- He points to the mantelpiece, where memorate a lifetime of astronomical work. carved bookends hold together a collection f you have ever seen the televi- Before going inside, though, first you see of small blue books. “One of those is called Patrick Moore and the BBC premiered The Sky sion program, you would be a handwritten sign on the front door. It The Story of the Solar System by G. F. at Night in April 1957. The broadcast company forgiven for thinking Sir explains that cats live in the house, so the Chambers,” Moore explains. “I picked that originally slated the monthly program for three porch door and the front door must never up when I was 6 and read it through, and I episodes to see how viewers would receive it; it has been running continuously in mostly the Patrick Moore delivered be open at the same time, lest they escape. was hooked. My education was completely same format ever since. BBC Photo Archive The Sky at Night from a “I’m very much a cat man,” explains knocked out through no one’s fault. The idea Ifilm set. Globes and equipment, Moore. “I’ve had cats all my life.” was: prep school, Eton, Cambridge. I never In April, he published a book called made it to any of them. I was laid low by a all-consuming interest in astronomy books and charts surround him Miaow! Cats really are nicer than people! wretched heart problem, which I overcame hadn’t wavered, though. — all decidedly antique in flavor. (Veloce Publishing Ltd.). “I chose the title when I was 15, but then the war came.” Between his early bouts of illness, Yet this is no set. This is Patrick for my book quite deliberately,” Moore Moore had joined the British Astronomical writes in its pages. “Obviously, it is danger- Astronomical exploration Association. “I was their youngest ever Moore’s home, suitably lit for filming and ous to generalise [sic], but given a choice It is part of the lore that surrounds Moore member at 11,” he says. “I published some without any real set dressing required. between the average person and the average that he lied about his age to join England’s research about the Moon — my first paper For 55 years, Moore has presented The cat, I would opt for the cat, and in this book Royal Air Force during World War II. was ‘Small Craterlets in the Mare Crisium,’ I will try to explain why.” “Swindled my way in,” is how he describes when I was 13.” Sky at Night for the BBC. This unprece- The short, sharp anecdote is a trade- it. “I was nowhere near the right medical Yet it took until Moore was in his 30s dented achievement has turned him into a mark. Moore’s thoughts are distilled into grade either.” for his first book offer to come along. “I After spending those war-filled years as was darn lucky. The publishers found me. household name in the United Kingdom. (1940) Archive (1939); BBC Photo Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Thinkstock (1929); Hemera Zuback William : Stuart Clark (www.stuartclark.com) is a noted a navigator in Bomber Command, he still W. W. Norton wanted a book about the Monocled and brusque, yet with a well- astronomy journalist and the author of The Sun held an offer to study at Cambridge Uni- Moon. I wrote it, and it took off, so they Astronomy : Kings (Princeton, 2007). versity, but he chose not to pursue it. His wanted another.” developed sense of humor, he is synonymous INE L with astronomy and British eccentricity. In TIME 2001, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to the popularisation [sic] of sci- A knight’s ence and to broadcasting.” life 1936 1929 Publishes first 1943 Reads The Story of 1939 research paper, Begins to wear Fiancée Lorna, the Solar System “Small Craterlets a monocle after an a nurse, is killed Patrick Moore’s 12-inch telescope and becomes in the Mare oculist tells him his during a German at his home observatory in Selsey, fascinated with Crisium” 1940 bombing England, has been his instrument 1923 right eye is weaker astronomy 1934 1937 Becomes a naviga- of choice since World War II. Born Patrick than his left Joins the British Invited to run a tor in the Royal Air BBC Photo Archive Alfred Caldwell- Astronomical small observatory Moore on March 4 in Force Bomber Association in East Grinstead, Pinner, Middlesex, Command Sussex, England England © 2012 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form • 62 Astronomy Novemberwithout permission 2012 from the publisher. www.Astronomy.com www.Astronomy.com 63 pursue a career in astronomy, he will have nothing of it. “I don’t Numbering inspire them. It’s the sub- ject. I just happen to be more than 700 there. I’m surprised at the way the audience episodes and counting, has held up; more than a million people The Sky at Night is the still watch us every longest-running month. I’ve made a lot of friends.” Using his famous 1908 Woodstock typewriter, television program Is there anyone he Sir Patrick Moore has written more than 100 wishes he could have books, mostly about astronomy. Before arthritis set in about a decade ago, he could use just two in the world. interviewed? fingers to type 90 words per minute. BBC Jane Fletcher “Halley,” he says immedi- Patrick Moore covered many events of the Soviet Union’s and the ately, referring to the 17th- United States’ Moon exploration programs for the BBC, from the first Luna century English astronomer and “I’ve written more than a hundred missions in 1959 to the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s. BBC Paul Johnstone adventurer Edmond Halley. “He was a books, but I’ve just written my last, I think.” great man. His very last words were to call The Sky at Night: Answers to Ques- That was in 1953. Reviewing the book in none of it remains in print now. “My science for a glass of wine and drink it. He was tions from Across the Universe (BBC the August Journal of the Royal Astronomi- fiction was only for boys, teenagers,” Moore everything. Undoubtedly, he would have Books, 2012) celebrates the 55th anniver- Sir Patrick Moore now tapes The Sky at Night from his home in Selsey. He has done so since his cal Society of Canada, R. J. Northcott noted says. “I only wrote one novel for adults. been a great man to go out for a drink with.” sary of the show by collecting answers to confinement to a wheelchair in 2004. BBC Photo Archive that he was “not convinced of the need or Having written it, I sat in here, and I read it questions that viewers have sent in over the advisability of speculation concerning space through. I held it over the wastepaper bas- An aging knight years. One includes a dispute between an travel” that Moore included in Guide to the ket and dropped it. It wasn’t very good.” Ptolemy the cat appears, with an exquisite 11-year-old girl and her father. She appeals “My one contribution, if I have made Ending an era Moon — ironic considering what was jet-black coat. Moore drops his hand beside to Moore to settle the argument over which one, is my interest in other people,” he It’s impossible not to feel a sense of sadness around the corner with Sputnik in 1957. An icon is born his wheelchair, and the cat does the rest, is the better galaxy: grand-design spiral continues. “Bringing them onto the show, that an era in British astronomy may be “I thought space travel would come Moore’s transition to TV came when The stroking itself to and fro. The astronomer M81 or starburst irregular M82. Always it’s all I can do. I’ll never retire. I’ll go on drawing to a close. As I walk through his along much faster than it actually did. It Sky at Night began in 1957. The BBC began to lose the use of his hands and legs to happy to supply an opinion, Moore lists the as long as I can. But I feel now that any- home, I pass a rack of perfectly ironed changed the public perception of astron- decided to make an astronomy program and arthritis about a decade ago. After his con- attributes of M81 before finally siding with thing I can do I have done. I think that’s it Hawaiian shirts, these days a Moore sarto- omy,” says Moore, who had been a member contacted Moore to be the presenter. That finement to a wheelchair, the BBC started the girl and M82.