Talk:Patrick Moore

I reinstated the external link to the "Patrick Moore plays the Xylophone" flash animation. It's consistently one of the top ten results for a Google search for "Patrick Moore" (depending on the exact search terms -- it's #3 for "Patrick Moore UK"), and is in fact the reason I came here to look him up. Assuming I'm not unique, the flash animation may be the way many non-UK residents come to hear of this fascinating gentleman. I myself intend no disrespect, and the animation itself doesn't appear to do so either, although not being British myself I admit it's possible I'm missing some subtle bit of inuendo. Saucepan 18:59, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

I don't think it is in any way deragatory: initially I removed it because it is non-encyclopedic. By now it no longer is, as indeed the Flash animation for 'Patrick Moore' is 6th in Google, and 'Patrick Moore UK' was 2nd just now. Anárion 07:38, 27 May 2004 (UTC)

Indeed. I looked him up just after watching that Flash animation. So I think this matters at least deserves a poll.--Baka toroi 03:16, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Nottingham Connection

Here in Nottingham (UK) I researched a local amateur astronomer named Thomas Bush (1839-1928) who spent much of his life building telescopes. To be brief, his biggest telescope was a 24 inch reflector that was set up at Fredrick Hanbury's private observatory in East Grinsted. It was still in use in 1927. Bush died in 1928, the telescope was dismantled. At the end of that year a young Patrick Moore took over this observatory on Hanbury's invite. He saw Bush's telescope there, and still owns Bush's observational log book, and many photographs of the site.

May I add the subject Thomas W. Bush to site as an extention to Patrick Moore's page? I do have two old photo's of Bush with his 24 inch telescope at Hanbury's East Grinsted observatory, but I am unable to upload them!

Richard Pearson richard_pearson2@yahoo.co.uk.

By all means. What trouble are you having uploading the pictures? Mintguy (T)

Patrick Moore - ecentricity and authorship

Apart from the monocle Patrick is well recognised by British TV audiences for his bushy (and fairly straggly) eyebrows and the way they tend to waggle around. Very distracting at times.

He has some other Science Fiction titles to his credit, although I suspect he'd rather forget about them. "World of Mists" (Frederic Muller, 1956) and the earlier "Quest of the Spaceways" are very much childrens adventure books and hopelessly outdated by more recent astronomy and space science. Despite that they are an interesting record of opinions at the time.

PATRICK MOORE PLAYS THE XYLOPHONE

Yes, we know -- the article says so! -- Arwel 15:32, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-Patrick! -Thenickdude 14:15, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

One-Two-Three-Four, Patrick Moore on the floor! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.176.146.222 (talk) 02:59, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

"Eccentricity"

This article is far too obsessed with Moore's eccentricity, one-off media appearances and other trvia, and not interested enough in his work.

Pseudonym R. T. Fis(c)hall

I recall Moore relating in the title chapter of his book Can You Speak Venusian? that he encountered a representative of the Aetherius Society when its journal Cosmic Voice was tricked into printing a spoof article submitted under that name. Moore denied having anything to do with this hoax. Did he borrow the pseudonym from the orginal hoaxer (who also adopted the names N. Ormuss, E. Ratic and Egon Spunrass), or is this a belated confession? -- Alan Peakall 12:37, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

'amateur astronomer'

After being paid for some fifty years to present a show on astronomy, after haven written countless books, and so on and so forth.. is he to be considered an 'amateur'? -- Coop 01:11, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

He has never been paid to be an astronomer, but worked as an educator/presenter/author etc. so the answer must be yes he is an amateur astronomer but he is a professional broadcaster and author etc.. Dabbler 02:26, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

That's a compelling argument, but as he actually performs astronomy in order to present (rather than just presenting other people's astronomy - like a commentator) I feel the line is a bit blurry, but nevermind. I guess the comparison might be with, say, gardeners on gardening shows.. even if all they do are the TV shows they're still professional gardeners.. or, not..? :) Anyway, minor point, but it just stood out for me. -- Coop 16:35, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

The usual distinction for a professional, as opposed to an amateur, is that you are paid to do the work. In this case Moore is the quintessential amateur in that he does/did his astronomy for love of it and would probably have always done it regardless of lack of payment, but he has found a way of making money from his hobby by being paid to write and present about it. Dabbler 17:03, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Ask any professional astronomer -- he is an amateur astronomer even if he is paid for his broadcasting. He teaches amateur astronomy (what you can do with an amateur telescope) and doesn't do astronomy research. Is a school gym teacher a professional footballer just becease they are paid to teach football lessons to amateurs? I don't think so. Rnt20 12:55, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Cleanup

I actually gave rationale for cleanup on Wikipedia:Cleanup, probably should have copied here too. This article just has a series of disconnected little fragments of information which flow very poorly. It needs reformatted into proper sections and paragraphs. Could do with a lot more information and a few sources, too. NicM 12:44, 8 March 2006 (UTC).

The tag you used says that the rationale is on the Talk Page. There was no rationale on the Talk Page. I have a silly question, why instead of just going around announcing there is work to be done, don't you actually make an effort to reformat the article yourself? Perhaps you could even research the information required and provide your sources. I wonder what you think is missing? You know your own standards better than us, if you can't do the work, perhaps more instructions for the working peons would be helpful. Dabbler 14:35, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I have spent a lot of time cleaning up articles in the past but I'm afraid I don't have time to do this one right now. Tagging it (so it goes in a cleanup category) means that perhaps someone else interested in cleanup with more free time or more knowledge may like to look at it. If you don't understand how the article is lacking, perhaps you may like to sample some of the articles at WP:FA and see the difference in format and flow. The main problem is that the article reads very choppily, a list of facts rather than an encylopedia article, particularly the biography section. I would start with a long paragraph about his youth and the War, and then a long one about the astronomy and TV show, then a paragraph covering the other interests, ie his novels, right-wing views and musical interests. Perhaps a paragraph about acting in the middle if there is enough to say (that likely should be discussed in biography rather than popular culture). Missing stuff... oh, whatever you can find, i don't know enough about him and the article is too unstructured to really say what is missing, but there is just not enough... it needs more about why, when, how did he do all these things the article mentions, stuff to flesh out the article from a list of statements to a serious biographical entry: you may want to take a look at the biography section of some of the featured articles, eg George Fox.

By the way, the tag did not say to present rationale on the talk page when I first placed it, merely that cleanup should be discussed there by anyone who had an interest in doing it. NicM 17:54, 8 March 2006 (UTC).

I had a go with my mop and bucket. See what y'all think. The Singing Badger 18:17, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Alright, I've done some more cleanup, removed a lot of uninteresting or contextless stuff and combined and moved a lot of stuff about to try and beef it up a bit (and cut down on the number of paragraphs with just "In 1970 Moore did this. In 2001 he was awarded that." stuff) and tried to group stuff together a bit. It still needs more content and context on a lot of stuff (eg, would be nice to know more about his politics and life, eg, and when and why he became interested in xylophone, if he ever said, how he met Brian May etc). NicM 19:45, 8 March 2006 (UTC).

Alan Moore Connection

Is there a source other than Alan's appearance on the Culture Show? It strikes me as something you might put in a script as an in-joke to your artist considering the subject matter. I just don't think it's something to be taken at face value. Stx 22:21, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Patrick Moore plays the Xylophone

should this be added back, as it is the 3rd result in Google, when searching for Patrick Moore UK Stormscape 08:26, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

YES! lol! Thats how I even heard of him from here in the US. Its funny as heck, a good link to put in at least! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.71.249.209 (talk) 02:09, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Added Operetta link.

I´ve placed a reference to one of the referenced operettas mentioned in the article. Is there a better way to tie those facts up? --Seanbert 21:35, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Not an amateur

Patrick Moore is a pre Apollo mapper of the moon, has made numerous astronomical discoveries, has written numerous books about astronomy (published by real publishers, not vanity ones). He has hosted a very long running scientific TV programme dedicated to astronomy. You cannot seriously suggest someone who has done all that is an "amateur". He even has an asteroid named after him. Further, many of his services to astronomy he has been paid for. He is a professional by all definitions of the word. Perhaps he hasn't done much recently, but he's 80 .... Dontdoit 00:22, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

However, Patrick Moore himself claims to be an amateur astronomer. See the first video clip on this website. Patrick Moore the amateur astronomer speaks He is not paid to do astronomy but to write books, present television shows. Dabbler 01:55, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

I agree with nearly all of what you say, Dontdoit, but you misunderstand the meaning of amateur astronomy. It is a completely different discipline from that of the professional astronomer, and is nothing to do with whether, or not, the practitioner is paid. Amateur astronomy involves a different kind of study of the heavens, and Patrick Moore is a recognised and respected expert in this field - as a former amateur astronomer myself I know a little about it. Moore was also president of the British Astronomical Association (which claims to be the voice of amateur astronomy in the UK). I hope this clears this matter up. – Agendum 10:56, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Monster Raving Loony Party

I'm sure Patrick was a long time member of the OMRLP. I seem to remember him mentioning it during an interview once, stating that when the Loonies took power he would be Chancellor (as it would be too sensible for him to be Minister of Science). Does anyone else remember this? Deadlock 14:18, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Never mind, there's a bit about it on the MRLP web page Deadlock 14:19, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

No. He may have said this, but he started his own (very short lived) rather right-wing party. It didn't last long. Agendum 23:12, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Discoverer of Mare Orientale?

Did I understand correctly in a recent episode of The Sky at Night that Patrick Moore is the discoverer of Mare Orientale, even before the USSR could photograph it, thanks to the Moon's wobble? If so, that is worth a mention. DirkvdM 09:44, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

Is it correct to refer to Queen guitarist Brian May as 'Dr' Brian May? Please see below (from Brian May's entry on Wiki)

"[Brian] went on to study at the prestigious Imperial College London departments of Physics and Mathematics, and was part way through a Ph.D. programme at Imperial College, studying reflected light from interstellar dust and the velocity of dust in the plane of the Solar System, when Queen became successful. He abandoned his astronomy doctorate - temporarily, as it later turned out - but did co-author two scientific research papers: MgI Emission in the Night-Sky Spectrum[6] and An Investigation of the Motion of Zodiacal Dust Particles (Part I),[7] which were based on Brian's observations in Tenerife. As of 2007, he is working on the updating and completion of his Ph.D.[8] He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in November 2002 by the University of Hertfordshire, although it is not typically customary in the United Kingdom for honorary doctors to be called "Doctor"

On women at the BBC

Is it worth covering his remarks on this topic? They are reported on the Times and BBC websites for 8 May 2007. LookerOn 10:42, 22 May 2007 (UTC)LookerOn

Cricket

No mention of his interest in cricket. Anyone care to contribute? Mark 1 August 2008 —Preceding undated comment was added at 07:56, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Physical characteristics

Is Sir Patrick's unusual physical size suitable material for wikipedia? My former physics teacher claimed he was 6'8" tall, and that coupled with his broad-boned build is surely noteworthy,

I've added it anyway, others can remove it if they think it's inappropriate.

- Meltingpot —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.137.152.183 (talk) 18:52, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

We need a better reference than your former physics teacher. My personal recollection is that while he is tall, he certainly wasn't as big as 6' 8". Dabbler 00:49, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

I met Patrick Moore some years ago - I'm average height for a man, so if he was 6' 8" he would have towered over me - he's not that tall. Autarch (talk) 20:08, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Hoaxes and books published as R.T.Fishall

No mention of Patrick Moore's books published under the pseudonym of R.T.Fishall? I have a copy of one of them, 'Bureaucrats: How to Annoy Them'.

Allegedly Patrick Moore has also been involved in organising certain UFO hoaxes. Anyone got any more information on this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.5.134.81 (talk) 23:10, 10 November 2007 (UTC)