Tintin Forums

The British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore has died at the age of 89.

Sir Patrick was the face of astronomy in the U.K., having been the host of the monthly The Sky at Night programme on the BBC for over 55 years, missing but a single edition (due to illness) in all that time - a record-breaking feat unequalled in broadcasting. His last appearance was the December 2012 edition shown last Monday.

It would be fair to say that he was a life-long eccentric, and had some odd personal and political views, but he was undoubtedly an expert in astronomy, with a particular interest in the Moon and is dark-side, and this knowledge led to him being the lead broadcaster on all BBC coverage of the Apollo lunar missions. His undoubted enthusiasm for the subject (he was said to be able to speak at 300 words per minute when something excited him) is credited with inspiring a generation of astronomers, scientists and astronauts.

He wrote both non-fiction and fiction books, and was a keen composer and musician, most famously as a xylophonist, although he once played piano as accompanist to Albert Einstein on violin.

According to Harry Thompson’s invaluable biography, Tintin: Hergé and his Creation, Sir Patrick acted as a technical consultant when the Moon books were being prepared for publication in English (he was a fluent French speaker, and translated at least one astronomy text from the language) by Methuen, and discovered (as Mr. Thompson puts it): “…a flaw in the huge system that Belgian experts had missed”. Sadly Thompson doesn’t go into detail about the nature of the flaw, nor does he mention if it was rectified - does anyone know?

Very sad to hear the news. Nobody has done as much to popularize astronomy in this country. I'm a great fan of Patrick Moore and I love The Sky At Night and watch it as often as I can, and that's not an easy thing given since it's only on once a month and at irregular times.

As Jock says, Patrick's speciality was the Moon, and it's no surprise that when the Tintin Moon books were being translated into English he was called upon for technical assistance. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper mentions this in the exclusive interview with the translators that we have on this site, and she goes on to say that they used him to check the sort of dialogue they should have in the book – for example, at that time, pre-Apollo missions, the term 'mission control' simply didn't exist.

I do hope that The Sky At Night can continue without Patrick – it's a rare scientific programme that hasn't been 'dumbed down' by glamorous presenters, or the need to explain things to people as if they're idiots. I hope Chris Lintott can continue to present the show, perhaps with the help of others like Professor Brian Cox.

Patrick Moore R.I.P.

R.I.P. Sir Patrick Moore; he was a true giant of broadcasting and I've watched The Sky at Night all my life. One the best programs on TV as far as I'm concerned. His enthusiasm and in particularly his encouragement of amateur astronomers was always a delight. We shall not see his likes of again for many a moon...

One of the best things about Patrick Moore was how happy he seemed to have young astronomers on his show and how genuinely interested he always seemed to be in what the younger generation of people in his profession were up to (rather than doing that thing that some elder statesmen of any profession do of retiring into a sort of "everything was better in my day" shell and ending up merely tolerated rather than genuinely respected). It's surely the best way to grow old.


I completely agree. And I think Sir Patrick was an example of what didn't used to be such a rare type of presenter: the slightly eccentric expert who would be classed as unphotogenic or not "accessible" enough for young viewers by today's shallow standards but who are incredibly watchable because they know what they're talking about. Johnny Ball, David Bellamy and David Attenborough are a few other examples who spring to mind. Patrick Moore was able and was allowed to give viewers more interesting information in fifteen minutes from a garden shed than you sometimes get in a whole hour's worth of some trendier presenters' spun-out, high-budget, globe-trotting HD extravaganzas. And somehow, contrary to what middle-aged TV executives seem to think, the Sky at Night's approach is often more genuinely exciting even to young viewers because they know they're getting real information straight from real scientists, rather than just another load of flashy images.

It's not that these modern science programmes are rubbish; just that they'd usually make a much better tight half-hour if they didn't have to be spun out to an hour with endless recaps, contrived teasers of revelations to come, and pointless eye-candy, all presumably deemed necessary to make the programmes watchable to viewers who are only half-watching and sellable abroad to TV stations where they need to be peppered with ad breaks.

So, yes, hopefully, the BBC will have the sense to let Sir Patrick's younger colleagues maintain what's so great about The Sky At Night.