Sir Patrick Moore
It’s fair to say astronomer Sir Patrick Moore lived an incredible life.
He was a former president of the British Astronomical Association, co-founder and former president of the Society for Popular Astronomy, author of over 70 books on astronomy, and presenter of the longest running television series (with the same original presenter), The Sky at Night on the BBC.
As an amateur astronomer, he became known as a specialist on observing the moon – and in fact, his early maps of the moon were used by the Russian Space Program to assist with their probe landings.
Within the span of his lifetime (1923 – 2012) he met Orville Wright, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong… An impressive trifecta.
I had the chance to interview Sir Patrick in 2010, at his home by the coast in Selsey UK, as part of a project about his lifelong friend Sir Arthur C Clarke.
Moore was incredibly nice. When I arrived he was wearing some sort of vividly coloured muumuu – but changed into more formal attire for the interview. His trademark monocle kept popping out when he’d get passionate about a particular topic. Nothing was off limits – and Sir Patrick allowed me to film around his house and get up close to the collection of telescopes in his backyard. His good friend and assistant Trevor provided the commentary
Moore kindly signed a poster of “The Face of the Moon” by John Russell that I’d brought along – and gave me some copies of his book “On the Moon” along with a charming collection of his Mothers drawings (of aliens) that he had arranged to be published. We also talked about his love of cricket (he played well into his seventies) and although arthritis was slowing him down, he dug out his old cricket bat to show me his batting stance. Before leaving Sir Patrick insisted I join him for generous glass of gin and tonic. Although I was about to drive home – it would have been rude to say no…
Sir Patrick Moore Remembers Arthur C Clarke
This clip is about Sir Patrick’s lifelong friendship with science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke. Sometime his diction can be a little hard to understand – so if you’d prefer a subtitled version – please click here…
Sir Patrick Moore Interview
In this audio-slideshow, I interview Sir Patrick about his incredible life, his involvement in the Apollo Moon Missions and the existence of God – amongst other things…
Thanks to Rhian Sheehan, for agreeing to the use of his music. Rhian Sheehan.
For more information about Arthur C Clarke, visit;
http://www.clarkefoundation.org
For more information about Sir Patrick Moore, visit;
http://www.sirpatrickmoore.com
