Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Moore was a prominent English astronomer, born on March 4, 1923, in Pinner, Middlesex. He faced significant health challenges during his early education but developed a passion for astronomy while studying at home. His notable contributions to lunar observation included assisting in the mapping of the moon, which played a role in the Apollo missions. Moore gained widespread recognition as the long-serving presenter of the BBC television program *The Sky at Night*, which began in 1957 and helped popularize astronomy in the UK. He earned multiple accolades for his work, including knighthood in 2001 and various prestigious medals. In addition to his contributions to astronomy, Moore was a prolific author, having written over seventy books, including works on science fiction for younger audiences. He also had talents in music and cricket, showcasing his diverse interests beyond astronomy. Moore's legacy continues to influence aspiring astronomers and science enthusiasts worldwide.
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Patrick Moore
Broadcaster
- Born: March 4, 1923
- Birthplace: Pinner, Middlesex, England
- Died: December 9, 2012
Biography
Sir Patrick Caldwell Moore was born in Pinner, Middlesex, England on March 4, 1923. At the age of six months, he and his parents moved to Sussex. Between 1965 and 1968, he was Director of the Armagh Planetarium in Northern Ireland. As an adult, he lived in Selsey, Sussex, where he had his own observatory in the garden.
Between the ages of six and sixteen, Moore was ill, on and off. This prevented him from attending school, so was mostly educated at home. During this time, he picked up his mother’s copy of The Story of the Solar System, which sparked his lifelong passion in astronomy. He began to concentrate upon studies of the moon. In 1959, the Russians used his charts to correlate the first pictures sent back by Lunik 3 of the far side of the moon. He was also involved in the lunar mapping before the NASA Apollo missions. Moore held doctorates from University of Lancaster (1974), Hatfield Polytechnic (1988), University of Birmingham (1990).
Moore served in the Royal Air Force from 1940 to 1945, as a navigator in Bomber Command. Tragically, during this time his fiancée, a nurse, was killed when a bomb fell on her ambulance. At the end of the war, Moore continued to observe the moon using the homemade reflecting telescope in his garden, eventually leading him to become a specialist in lunar observation.
In April, 1957, Moore became the presenter of a new British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television astronomy program called The Sky at Night. The monthly programs were originally scheduled for a short run but Moore still served as the program’s presenter some twenty-eight years later. This fact earned him a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving television presenter. He missed only one edition when he contracted food poisoning. His television program popularized astronomy in the United Kingdom and beyond and, through his writing, Patrick Moore influenced several generations of astronomers.
Moore was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and was President of the British Astronomical Association from 1982 to 1984. He received knighthood in 2001. Moore won a number of awards, including the Lorimer Gold Medal in 1962, the Goodacre Gold medal in 1968, Italian Astronomical Society Arturo Gold medal in 1969, the Jackson-Gwilt medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1978, and the Klukpke-Roberts award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1978. He was nominated for a Hugo award in 2005 in the Best Related Book (to the science- fiction field) for hisFutures: Fifty Years in Space—The Challenge of the Stars. Asteroid 2602 Moore is named after him
Moore wrote more than seventy books, mostly on astronomy, but also a number of science-fiction novels for young people. The first, Master of the Moon, appeared in 1952. In 1977, he published the first in his Scott Saunders Space Adventure series, which ran to six novels.
A self-taught and talented musician before being forced to stop due to arthritis, he played the xylophone at a Royal Variety Performance and wrote the score for the musical play Galileo: The True Story, performed in 2002 by the Cambridge University Astronomical Society. He also wrote the operetta Perseus and Andromeda. He also had a love for the game of cricket and has played for the Lord’s Taveners.