Sir Patrick Moore has died

[vandeleur]

The BBC just announced

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

He "passed away peacefully at 12:25 BST 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.

[VHscraps]

Got to say Vandeleur that I was always happy to stumble across The Sky at Night in recent years, especially amidst the tide of reality TV crap of the last ten years. I never sought it out, but I would watch it if that's where I happened to land when I was channel-hopping. I used to think to myself, I can't believe they still make this - it just seemed so out of step with TV now.

He was totally barking in the best possible way of being a terminal enthusiast - you'd see him sitting in his basement corner, dandruff or dry skin around the shoulders of his jacket, getting all worked up about the solar system (LOL), and still seeming to have more urgent things to tell us than his younger compadres on the show - and clearly no one there had the heart to kinda brush his jacket off before they started shooting.

The total antithesis of so-called 'reality' TV with all its fakery. Godspeed to the old buffer.

[vandeleur]

Yeah he had that eccentric enthusiasm that is easy to engage with .
A very cool guy in his own un-cool sort of way .