Patrick Moore (astronomer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Patrick Moore

Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore ( CBE , FRS , FRAS ; born March 4, 1923 in Pinner , Middlesex , now the London Borough of Harrow , † December 9, 2012 in Selsey , West Sussex ) was an English astronomer , author of numerous popular science and some Science fiction books and television presenter .

Life

Patrick Moore had lived in Sussex , England since he was six . Between the ages of seven and twelve, Patrick Moore was sick more often, so that he could not attend school and was mostly homeschooled. During this time his mother gave him a copy of The Story of the Solar System , which sparked his lifelong passion for astronomy.

A family visit to the Brockhurst Observatory in August 1933 made a lasting impression on the 10-year-old boy . It also stimulated his lifelong penchant for visual observation . After long-time director William Sadler Franks (1851-1935) Moore took over the management of the observatory. When the owner, Hanbury, died, it was dismantled in 1939, the Cooke refractor sold, and Frank's extensive observation books turned over to Moore.

During the Second World War he served as a navigator in the Royal Air Force Bomber Command . In order to even be accepted into the Royal Air Force, he had forged his health certificates and given the wrong age (Moore was only seventeen when he joined).

Towards the end of the war, he began to observe the moon from his garden with self-made mirror telescopes . His extensive observations, records and maps made him an expert in this field. In 1968 he coined the term Transient Lunar Phenomena .

In 1959, the Soviet Union used its maps to compare them with the first photos of the Lunik-3 mission. He was also involved in the preparation of the Apollo missions to find a suitable landing site. From 1965 to 1968 he was director of the Armagh Planetarium .

Patrick Moore has written more than 70 books on astronomy. Since April 1957 he presented once a month, the popular program The Sky at Night in the BBC . He received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving television presenter. In 2010 he made a cameo on the BBC series Doctor Who in the episode The Eleventh Hour .

His books and television shows popularized astronomy in Britain and influenced generations of astronomers.

He also wrote some science fiction stories. One of them appeared in Scott Saunders Space Adventure magazine in 1977 , which was aimed primarily at younger readers.

In addition to his love of astronomy, Patrick Moore was a passable musician who played the xylophone and piano .

In the 55 years of his monthly BBC show, Moore was absent only once because of a near-fatal food poisoning.

In 1982 the asteroid (2602) Moore was named after him.

In 2001 Moore was knighted by the British Queen .

Patrick Moore was never married. His fiancee Lorna, a nurse, was killed in a German air raid on London in 1943.

Works (selection)

Non-fiction

  • Suns, myths and men
    • We in space. Little novel of astronomy . Translation by Egon Larsen . Foreword by Günter D. Roth . Ebenhausen near Munich: Langewiesche-Brandt, 1955
  • The Planet Venus (1961)
  • The Amateur Astronomer (1970)
  • The Atlas of the Universe (1970)
  • Guinness book of Astronomy
  • Patrick Moore's Yearbook of Astronomy (1963–81)
  • Atlas of the Solar System (1983)
  • The New Atlas of the Universe (1984)
  • Atlas of Neptune (1994)
  • The Story of the Telescope (1997)
  • Stargazing: Astronomy without a Telescope
  • Exploring the Night Sky with Binoculars
  • The Wondering Astronomer (2000)
  • The Astronomy Encyclopedia (2002)
  • Bang! The Complete History of the Universe (2006) with Brian May and Chris Lintott - dt. Bang !: the whole history of the universe (2007)

Novels

  • The Frozen Planet (1954)
  • Destination Luna (1955)
  • Wheel in Space (1956)
  • Captives of the Moon (1960)
  • Planet of Fire (1969)
  • How Britain Won the Space Race (1972) with Desmond Leslie ; this work is one of the sources of inspiration for the steampunk genre.

Web links

Commons : Patrick Moore  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore dies, aged 89 . In: BBC News. December 9, 2012. Retrieved December 23, 2012.
  2. ↑ Obituary: Patrick Moore . In: BBC News. December 9, 2012. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
  3. ↑ Mysterious Moon Flashes: Could the Transient Lunar Phenomena be Linked to the Solar Cycle? universetoday.com
  4. ↑ a b [1] On the death of Patrick Moore - The incredulous Patrick, FAZ.net, December 11, 2012
  5. ^ Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1 in the Google Book Search
  6. ↑ [2] Why Patrick Moore is married to the Moon, London Evening Standard , January 9, 2007. Online version at standard.co.uk
  7. ^ Brian M. Stableford : Science Fact and Science Fiction: an Encyclopedia . Routledge, New York 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-97460-8 , Steampunk, pp. 502 f . (English).
personal data
SURNAME Moore, Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caldwell-Moore, Sir Patrick Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English astronomer, author and television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Pinner , Middlesex
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 2012
Place of death Selsey , West Sussex