Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer and broadcaster, dies aged 89 (hosted BBC 'The Sky At Night' 50 years)

BBC News ^ | 12/9/12 | BBC

[NormsRevenge]

British astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore has died, aged 89, his friends and colleagues have said.

He "passed away peacefully at 12:25 this afternoon" at his home in Selsey, West Sussex, they said in a statement.

Sir Patrick presented the BBC programme The Sky At Night for over 50 years, making him the longest-running host of the same television show ever.

He wrote dozens of books on astronomy and his research was used by the US and the Russians in their space programmes.

Described by one of his close friends as "fearlessly eccentric", Sir Patrick was notable for his habit of wearing a monocle on screen and his idiosyncratic style.

Sir Patrick presented the first edition of The Sky at Night on 24 April 1957. He last appeared in an episode broadcast on Monday.

A statement by his friends and staff said: "After a short spell in hospital last week, it was determined that no further treatment would benefit him, and it was his wish to spend his last days in his own home, Farthings, where he today passed on, in the company of close friends and carers and his cat Ptolemy.

"Over the past few years, Patrick, an inspiration to generations of astronomers, fought his way back from many serious spells of illness and continued to work and write at a great rate, but this time his body was too weak to overcome the infection which set in, a few weeks ago.

"He was able to perform on his world record-holding TV programme The Sky at Night right up until the most recent episode .

"His executors and close friends plan to fulfil his wishes for a quiet ceremony of interment, but a farewell event is planned for what would have been Patrick's 90th birthday in March 2013."

[NormsRevenge]

Bombardier in WW2, lost his fiancee due to a bomb hitting her ambulance ..

An 'Uncle' you'd always want to have around the dinner table..

Quite the old chap.. RIP

[NormsRevenge]

To say he was one of a kind .. maybe an understatement,, he was outspoken on many topics..

[NormsRevenge]

Sir Patrick attacked over ‘racist’ comments
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1411100/Sir-Patrick-attacked-over-racist-comments.html

By Nicola Woolcock

12:01AM BST 24 Oct 2002

Sir Patrick Moore was accused of racism yesterday after claiming that Britain was being “swamped by parasites”.

The astronomer and television presenter made the comment while addressing a pensioners’ meeting organised by the charity, Age Concern.

He criticised the amount of Government and National Lottery money given to immigrants, compared with that spent on the elderly.

“We are being swamped by people who come here because we are a soft touch. I know people will say ‘racist, racist, racist’,” he said.

Asked to clarify his point outside the meeting in Winchester, Hants, the 79-year-old presenter of The Sky At Night said: “We are being swamped by parasites. Call me a racist but I would send them all back to where they came from.

—snip—

---

definitely had an attitude..

Patrick Moore: “I’m no European – the English are best”
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-05-01/patrick-moore-im-no-european—the-english-are-best

Paul Jones
12:01 AM, 01 May 2012

TV astronomer Patrick Moore has expressed some frank views on Germany, and Britain’s other European neighbours, in the latest issue of Radio Times magazine.

“I’m no European,” Moore, 89, told E Jane Dickson. “Why? Go to Europe and look around. The Germans tried to conquer us. The French betrayed us. The Belgians did very little and the Italians made us our ice cream.

“Just look at the world now and look at it when we had a bigger say in it. The English are best. Stand up for England!”

Although he will not discuss his role in the Second World War, the Sky at Night presenter is thought to have distinguished himself in both the military and in British Intelligence. And his wartime experiences - including the death of his fiancée in a bombing raid aged just 20 - have had a negative influence on his view of Germany.

—snip—

[Verginius Rufus]

I read some of his books when I became interested in astronomy, when I was in grade school. I remember that he dismissed the idea of manned space flight, or maybe the idea that man would walk on the moon, as something that would not happen for a long time to come, just a few years before those things did happen.

As I recall, he disliked the adjectives being used for Venus (Venusian, Venerian) and wanted people to use "Cytherean" instead ("Cytherea" being an ancient label for Aphrodite/Venus). That never caught on.

[dragnet2]

Sir Patrick Moore was accused of racism yesterday after claiming that Britain was being “swamped by parasites”. The astronomer and television presenter made the comment while addressing a pensioners’ meeting organized by the charity, Age Concern. He criticized the amount of Government and National Lottery money given to immigrants, compared with that spent on the elderly.

Same thing now in the U.S. Our government could care less about the elderly or the working tax payers.

To prove this, there are tens of millions of Americans out of work or under employed, as our social services, hospitals, roads, jails, resources, schools and jobs are strained to the breaking point. Yet the government continues to flood the country with foreigners from all over the planet.

United people are extremely difficult for governments to control.

They understand full well dividing the once united, allows for more government control on it's march towards total socialism and domination.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks NormsRevenge, RIP Sir Patrick.

[Nowhere Man]

He’s dang right, we are suffering under the same problem as the UK when it comes to immigrants who want to get on our welfare and become deadbeats. I agree with him, send the deadbeats back.