[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

No doubt many of you have heard - Sir Patrick Moore passed away earlier today.

He presented the BBC's show 'The Sky at Night', every month for 55 years straight ( with one bout of salmonella causing him to skip 1 episode in more than 700 ). He wrote dozens of books and articles, and typed out replies to just about every letter that he received....

I know Stu and I were both much influences by Patrick's infectious enthusiasm.

Many old episodes of the show are online ( in real-player format unfortunately ) including the hour long Mars special from February 2007 - where yours truly was interviewed by the great man talking about what we amateurs do with imagery from Spirit and Opportunity
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/skyatnight/proginfo.shtml


Pete Grindrod, Chris Lintott and I sat with him during the Phoenix landing - his enthusiasm defied his old age and poor health. A true memory of a life time.

He may well have been the only man to have met Orville Wright, Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong. He even accompanied Einstein's Violin playing on the piano. He outlived them all.

The worlds of astronomy, cosmology and space exploration have lost a gigantic ambassador today.

Next time you go out and see the night sky - have a drink for Patrick. Wherever he is now...that's probably what he's doing

[Phil Stooke]

Very sorry to read the news. He published my first maps of Phobos and Deimos in his 1983 Yearbook of Astronomy, giving me the confidence to go on with that kind of work. I have a signed photo of him in my office, looking down on me now.

Phil

[NickF]

I hope the 'Yearbook' continues in Patrick's absence; it's a useful resource and the (sometimes eclectic) articles never fail to be interesting and authoritative.

edit: typo