back to article Patrick Moore: Lived with cats, accompanied Einstein on the piano

A nobleman among geeks, the great stargazer Patrick Moore passed away yesterday at the age of 89. Born in 1923, the great man racked up many geek accolades in his long career of star watching, contributing to the NASA moon landings and holding the world record for the longest running TV show with the same presenter for his 55 …

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  1. EyeCU

    Look to the stars

    And raise a pint in memory. You will be missed Patrick

    1. EyeCU
      Pint

      Whoops

      Forgot the important bit, the beer!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      He was a bit

      Odd though.

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon
        Pint

        Re: He was a bit

        "He was a bit odd though"

        You could say that about every person who manages to break from the herd and be an individual.

        In this case we have a man who was an inspiration and an idol to many, and also had a wicked sense of humour.

        There is new star in the skies and he will always be fondly remembered (unlike some other 'celebrities' I could mention).

        Are there any true gentleman left in this once great land? or is it truly the end of an era?

      2. Peter Simpson 1
        Pint

        Re: He was a bit

        That's what makes him interesting. Odd and intelligent is a great combination.

        RIP

  2. Z-Eden
    Pint

    RIP Patrick. A great man and you'll be missed. Truly an inspiration to Boffins everywhere!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One of the greats. RIP and thanks for everything.

  4. jai

    WTF?

    What? No mention of his sterling contribution to the GamesMaster tv show?

    Regardless, the man was an utter legend and will be surely missed :(

    I hope they name a star, or a black hole, or an Intergallactic Destroyer spaceship after him or something, he surely deserves it!

    1. AdamT

      Re: WTF?

      and no mention of his starring (well, via video tape) role in Return to the Forbidden Planet ?

      1. Christoph

        Re: WTF?

        and no mention of "Bureaucrats – How To Annoy Them" by "RT Fishall" ?

    2. Hieronymus Howerd

      Re: WTF?

      and no mention of his sterling work promoting the right-wing nutjobs over at UKIP?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WTF?

      He has an asteroid (2602 Moore), but it's a shame he didn't get a crater on the Moon. His charts of the lunar surface were the best we had until the space age.

      Hmmm there isn't a crater on the Moon called Moore - yet...

      Who's up to nuke the Moon in his honour?

    4. Mips
      Childcatcher

      Re: WTF?

      Pitty Moore's Law is already taken.

    5. PatientOne

      Re: WTF?

      I may be the only person who remembers him in 'Independence Day UK', particularly when he engaged in fisticuffs with an alien...

      Wonder where I put that tape...

      1. AdamT

        Re: WTF?

        well, just based on the wikipedia entry alone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_UK), this sounds _awesome_. Hope you find the tape!

  5. Captain Hogwash
    Pint

    WTF?

    What? No mention of his sterling contribution to Birr Castle as a disembodied tour guide?

  6. Ian 62
    Pint

    If only to do half as much

    Here's hoping I'm able to do half as much in my life as he did in his.

    RIP Sir.

  7. Red Bren
    Pint

    An inspiration

    I've still got the Sky at Night newsletter on Halley's comet somewhere in the attic.

  8. sandman

    A Sad Loss

    Orbit in peace

  9. Qwelak
    Pint

    The end of an Era

    RIP Sir Patrick, one of a kind now gone. Always loved Sky at Night though didn't follow it as often as I'd have liked. Pleased to have caught his last show (quite by chance) last week.

    Cheers for everything.

    1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

      Re: The end of an Era

      Probably more the fault of the BBC than yours. That buch of fairies are more interested in buggering children than doing the nation a decent service.

  10. Christopher Slater-Walker

    Good job he wasn't a diplomat

    I have absolutely no doubt that he was inspirational and utterly devoted to his subject. However he maintained an opinion that "The only good German is a dead German" until the end. I find it remarkable that one can be so educated and intelligent and yet continue to harbour such bitterness and, frankly, I hope most people would be able to move on from that place. I guess his wartime experiences didn't allow him to do so. Fortunately I have had the luxury throughout my life never to have experienced what he went through.

    1. Mike 125

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      Since you have "had the luxury throughout my life never to have experienced what he went through." then why the hell do you find his views "remarkable"? There's more to life than being a diplomat. Idiot.

      RIP Sir Patrick.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      Well thats not an uncommon opinion of people of his age, especially as his Fiancee was killed by a German bomb.

      1. wowfood

        Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

        You say it's lucky he's not a diplomat. How about royalty since I do believe Prince Phillip shared the exact same viewpoint.

    3. jai

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      Citation needed.

      1. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects

        Citation needed.

        Agreed.

        I don't know what he did in the RAF but as with everyone in the British military at that time from Monty down, they were nearly all socialists.

        Not that that makes them any less racist if they are such. However I was friends with a bomber pilot in his last years and his biggest regret was bombing civilians in WW2. The idea that they were Germans never arose. People did what they were told in those days. And while they will swallow any old bilge even going as far as becoming antisemitic when it was safest to do so, most of the viable opposition to Hitler was knifed in 1938 IIRC.

        And all the propaganda the Germans were subject in the decade leading up to WW2 to had to have a massive effect on the most obedient people in Europe.

        1. elderlybloke

          Re: Citation needed.

          "I don't know what he did in the RAF "

          He was a Navigator in Bomber Command.

          Von Braun was a Major in the SS, and was certainly a War Criminal.

        2. Magnus_Pym

          Re: Citation needed.

          "I don't know what he did in the RAF but as with everyone in the British military at that time from Monty down, they were nearly all socialists"

          Citation definitely needed FFS!

    4. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      His politics were pretty objectionable. I agree that he did an awful lot for astronomy in Britain and was not afraid to send himself up but his politics should have remained private.

      Eulogies are better when they are properly critical.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

        Shush Charlie, we all know it's bad taste to suggest the deceased are anything other than perfect!

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

          Shush Charlie, we all know it's bad taste to suggest the deceased are anything other than perfect!

          Yeah, I forgot that I was posting on the Daily Mail forum.

          1. RegGuy1 Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

            Interesting that I'm currently in Koln and trying to upvote those posts that are critical of his German stance, but the site won't register my upvote.

            The Germans are the nicest people I have ever met in Europe, and of all the countries I have visited Germany is by far the best.

            Let's remember that the Nazis were effectively created from the appalling economic mess that was left after the first world war. That mess was caused in large part by protectionism and American reluctance to trade with a country it had lent a lot of money to. American opportunism is the primary cause of the mid-century troubles.

            Mr Moore was an enthusiastic amateur, but his political and other views were disgusting.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

              Actually, rabid Lutherinasm in the late 19th and early 20th century had quite a lot to do with fostering it too.

              1. cyborg
                Mushroom

                Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

                Please, let's not have any nuance in discussions on human behaviour. Let's all just pretend it's nice and simple and we can get back to assuming that the cultural or personal explanation de jour really sums everything up about a war that lasted over five years across mutliple countries with its roots - like everything else - extending much further back.

    5. TheRealWelshCJ

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      I guess losing the love of your life is difficult to get over...

      There are a lot of people who fought and lost people in WWII that still have that same idea of the Germans. It is sad, but unfortunately emotional memories do often skew perceptions and understandings for decades. The important thing is that our generation (and future generations) cast aside these misconceptions.

      It is important to remember Patrick for his contributions, and not that one opinion.

      RIP Moore.

    6. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      In his own words about Germans and Werhner von Braun

      "When I met von Braun, there were no ill feelings, and we got on very well; subsequently he joined me in a Sky at Night TV programme"

      "No-one could hate the Nazis more than me (they killed my fiancée, many of my best friends, and did their best to kill me). But on my knowledge of him I am ready to give von Braun a 'clean bill'. I do not believe that he was personally involved in atrocities, and it is also clear that he was in no position to prevent them. We will never know the full truth; I can only give my personal opinion"

      Sounds quite balanced to me.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

        "I am ready to give von Braun a 'clean bill'. I do not believe that he was personally involved in atrocities, and it is also clear that he was in no position to prevent them. We will never know the full truth; I can only give my personal opinion"

        The survivors of Nordhausen have testafied that von Braun was involved in atrocities (in and above the horror of Nordhausen). A lot of this came out after von Bruan's death, so it's entirely possible Moore saw the sanitised Disney-friendly von Braun NASA wanted to share.

    7. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
      Headmaster

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      What he said (in May this year) was:-

      "I'm no European, 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.

      We must take care, there may be another war. The Germans will try again, given another chance. A Kraut is a Kraut is a Kraut. And the only good Kraut is a dead Kraut. There can be good, free, honourable, decent Germans. I haven't met them myself, but I'm sure they exist."

      Given that he lost his ambulance driving fiancée to a German bomb, was in a plane crash (presumably due to German action) that killed his pilot and co-pilot and knocked out all his teeth, and probably lost a good many fiends to enemy action, I am surprised that he is so restrained when talking about Germany.

      Anyway, he needed have worried, germany has now achieved with banks what it couldn't achieve with tanks.

      I was watching the Sky at Night on Sunday (00:30) and I thought that he had become quite frail looking compared to the previous months' program. I can't remember when I first saw the Sky at Night, I will miss him on the show, after all I've been watching it for well over 40 years.

      There is a crater on the far side of the moon called "Moore Crater", how fitting.

      1. Gob Smacked

        Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

        "I was watching the Sky at Night on Sunday (00:30) and I thought that he had become quite frail looking compared to the previous months' program."

        Correct, his years showed last Sunday, very much more than before. You could feel it coming, but it seems his mind, though slower, had not lost his clarity yet.

        It'll be different without him, allthough I hope Chris will be his very worthy next in line for Sky at Night: it's a series I would miss very much if it were to go now...

    8. Paul Dx

      Re: Good job he wasn't a diplomat

      He also visited Dachau concentration camp whilst with the RAF.

      I think that might have a slight bearing on his feelings towards Germans ...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Farewell

    ... to a unique character and bloody useful human being.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    It would have been rather more interesting to have lived with Einstein and accompanied cats on the piano.

  13. proto-robbie
    Unhappy

    RIP Sir Patrick

    Anyone of us in Britain looking skywards with an iota of familiarity of the stars has him to thank for it. A wonderful man, and what a sad loss to science broadcasting and astronomy in this country.

    1. Gob Smacked

      Re: RIP Sir Patrick

      I'm no Brit and I'm sure that his influence went far beyond my Dutch borders...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I do think it would be appropriate

    To send him up on the next satellite in his casket and jettison it in the general direction of somewhere other than here, such that if we ever do make physical contact with someone else out there, he might be the first to do so.

    RIP.

  15. Mr_Pitiful
    Pint

    RIP

    I had a letter from him when I was 10, Inviting me to join his news letter

    Which I did, and received until recently

    He was such an inspiration to me over the years, as was Carl Sagan

    A toast to you my friend, I hope you're up there enjoying the 'SPACE'

  16. Soruk
    Pint

    Take your place amongst the stars, Sir Patrick, and join your beloved Lorna who has been patiently waiting for you up there.

  17. Robert Grant

    Awesome eulogy

    Well done El Reg.

  18. a_mu

    he will be missed ,

    I once as a kid in the 60's was at the London planetarium,

    he gave a special presentation to the school kids.

    he had us all wanting to be scientists.

    BTW: re " Young Moore was present in NASA ground control for the Apollo landing"

    was he not in the BBC studios in the UK ? I seem to remember him crying at the landing. bu tit wa sa long time ago..

    the world is a better place because of him.

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