2012 has seen the loss of another legend and inspiration. We mourn the loss of Sir Patrick Moore, who passed away on December 9th.
Moore’s friends and staff released the following statement:
“After a short spell in hospital last week, it was determined that no further treatment would benefit him, and it was his wish to spend his last days in his own home, Farthings, where he today passed on, in the company of close friends and carers and his cat Ptolemy….Over the past few years, Patrick, an inspiration to generations of astronomers, fought his way back from many serious spells of illness and continued to work and write at a great rate, but this time his body was too weak to overcome the infection which set in, a few weeks ago. He was able to perform on his world record-holding TV Programme The Sky at Night right up until the most recent episode.”
Queen guitarist Brian May, further said: “Patrick will be mourned by the many to whom he was a caring uncle, and by all who loved the delightful wit and clarity of his writings, or enjoyed his fearlessly eccentric persona in public life. Patrick is irreplaceable. There will never be another Patrick Moore. But we were lucky enough to get one.”
British space scientist, Maggie Aderin-Pocock, echoed the sentiments of many amateur astronomers. She was first inspired to “look at the night sky” through Moore, saying, “He was broadcasting before we actually went into space and he saw a change in our understanding of the universe, and he took us all the way through that, right up until today. What he did was something very straightforward. He would tell us what to look for and where to look for it and for budding astronomers everywhere that is what we need, that information. But he would tell us more, he would go into depth, he would take us on a journey through space and we can’t ask for better than that really.”
Today’s tribute includes a selection of Lunar, solar system, and deep sky sketches featuring objects from Moore’s Caldwell Catalog.
Richard Handy | Per-Jonny Bremseth | Frédéric Burgeot | Leonor Ana Hernandez | Michel Deconinck | Paul Abel | Mark Seibold | Serge Vieillard | Frank McCabe | Maurice Toet | Alexander Massey | Tom Corstjens | Michael Vlasov | Rony De Laet | Christian Rausch | Eiji Kato | Bertrand Laville | János Gábor Kernya | Gábor Sánta | Cseh Viktor | Carlos E. Hernandez | Eric Graff | Dale Holt | Nicolas Zannin | Ferenc Lovró | Hans-jürgen Merk | John Karlsson | Scott Mellis