Patrick Moore inspired many to take up Astronomy.
Patrick is now 88 years old and hopefully will continue to present Sky at Night for many more years to come.
There was a Q&A sort of an article by Yvonne Swann in last week’s Daily Mail Weekend Magazine.
He said that he has no family, his fiancee, Lorna, who was a nurse was killed in an air raid in London when they were both 20 during the war. On her death, he knew that he will never going to get married. Fortunately, he was very close to his mother so Patrick was not totally alone. She lived with him in his house in Selsey in Sussex till her death at the age of 94.
Patrick recalls that he was a fairly studious boy and was already reading P. G. Wodehouse when he was nine years old. His education was already mapped out from an early age. He was to go to a prep school and then Eton and finally Cambridge. However, Patrick ended up being home-schooled as he was found to be suffering from a heart condition. He did pass his entrance to Cambridge but the WWII happened and joined the Air Force instead.
With his Woodstock typewriter, Patrick wrote more than a hundred books, including Science Fiction novels but his first book was a translation of a book by a French astronomer about Mars. His first “own” book was Guide to the Moon which is still in stock today.
Patrick Moore is a cricket enthusiast. He played as a spin bowler but had to give up at age 78 when an old spine injury from the war has started to bother him. Patrick can no longer walk, he can use his hands with great difficulty, which meant giving up his old typewriter.
“I am near the end of my life now but I don’t think it ends here. If it did, the entire thing would be pointless. No, we go on to the next stage, Who knows? It might be somewhere I can learn to bat decently.”
– Patrick Moore on Afterlife and playing cricket.
Patrick is devoted to his cats, Jeannie and Ptolemy. The cats have their own fountained garden, ensuring that they are safe from harm and diseases like cat-flu. There is a note in his house saying “The house is maintained entirely for the convenience of the cat.”
Despite his health, Patrick still writes. His latest is The Data Book of Astronomy. His interest in Astronomy was started from reading his mother’s copy of GF Chambers’ The Story of the Solar System. He got himself a binoculars and then saved up for a little telescope. At the age of 11, he joined the British Astronomical Association and became the youngest member.
Patrick Moore has presented The Sky at Night every month, bar one, beginning 1957. As Astronomy is Patrick passion, his work was more of a hobby.