I was slightly surprised this evening, following the passing of Patrick Moore, to see some fairly negative assessments of the man and his work. Understandably, there's been a bit of mixed reaction, mainly due to the man's quirky (if not downright unpleasant) politics. But let's not lose sight of his immeasurable contribution to the creation of new British Scientists over many decades. His appearances on the BBC moon landing coverage led me to read his books, and take up a lifelong love of astronomy in particular and science in general.
...and I am not the only one.
He sometimes came across as a reactionary, misogynist little Englander of a type that is very thankfully a rarity these days. But to think of him as only that is to totally miss his main contribution to our culture.
This man single-handedly inspired several generations of children to become astronomers and scientists. I remember, as a young boy, taking my first telescope out into the freezing Scottish winter night with a copy of his Observers Book of Astronomy which told me that I could see the moons of Jupiter (I could!), the rings of Saturn (there they were!) and that Polaris is in fact a binary star (and there it was!). He made the sky magic, and I took my own boys out on starry nights and showed them the planets and stars he showed me.
A towering figure.
We were lucky to have him.
