To British television viewers, the name ‘Patrick Moore’ has been synonymous with Astronomy and Space Travel since he first appeared on The Sky at Night in 1957. To amateur astronomers he has been a source of inspiration, joy, humour and even an eccentric role model since that time. Most people know that his 55 years of presenting The Sky at Night is a world record, but what was he really like in person? What did he do away from the TV cameras, in his observatory, and within the British Astronomical Association, the organisation that inspired him as a youngster? Also, precisely what did he do during the War Years, a subject that has always been shrouded in mystery? Martin Mobberley, a friend of Patrick Moore’s for 30 years, and a former President of the British Astronomical Association, has spent ten years exhaustively researching Patrick’s real life away from the TV cameras. His childhood, RAF service, tireless voluntary work for astronomy and charity and his endless book writing are all examined in detail. His astronomical observations are also examined in unprecedented detail, along with the battles he fought along the way and his hatred of bureaucracy and political correctness. No fan of Sir Patrick Moore can possibly live without this work on their bookshelf!

Is this a book that you would read from cover to cover? The simple answer is no! It is a book that the reader would dip into every now and again to get the flavour of one of Sir Patrick's works. There is an appraisal of each of Sir Patrick's works contained within it. This book constitutes the first of two, or perhaps three volumes of appraisals of Sir Patrick's books. Why have I found it necessary to spread out his works across two or three volumes? For two reasons basically: firstly, Sir Patrick wrote around 200 books throughout his long life; secondly is the issue of book availability; all of Sir Patrick's books are now out of print, and, the earlier ones mostly, are only sporadically available from antiquarian booksellers. It is a great honour for me to have this first volume ready for publication for the centenary year of Sir Patrick's birth in 2023.

The result of an exhaustive study of Sir Patrick Moore’s observations of the Moon and planets for more than 60 years, this book is a fantastic companion to the extremely popular, “It Came From Outer Space Wearing an RAF Blazer!” written by the same author. Moore recorded his telescopic observations in his logbooks, which are reproduced and described here in detail, along with his sketches and notes. In this light, the author discusses the factors that caused Moore to switch from lunar observing to planetary and variable star observing. He has also included personal recollections and humorous anecdotes from Moore’s friends and acquaintances, as well as a look at his best loved books. Further chapters describe Moore’s foreign travels and correspondence with those back home. Lastly, the author has not neglected a few of Moore’s most memorable television and radio appearances, which are examined along with a close up of what it was like to visit Moore’s beloved home of Farthings in Selsey. Essentially, this is a book written by popular demand from the readers of the author’s original biography, who craved more of Moore!

This book will take the story of astronomy on from where Allan Chapman left it in Stargazers, and bring it almost up to date, with the developments and discoveries of the last three centuries. He covers the big names - Halley, Hooke, Herschel, Hubble and Hoyle; and includes the women who pushed astronomy forward, from Caroline Herschel to the Victorian women astronomers. He includes the big discoveries and the huge ideas, from the Milky War, to the Big Bang, the mighty atom, and the question of life on other planets. And he brings in the contributions made in the US, culminating in their race with the USSR to get a man on the moon, before turning to the explosion of interest in astronomy that was pioneered by Sir Patrick Moore and The Sky at Night.

The Encyclopedia of Lunar Science includes the latest topical data, definitions, and explanations of the many and varied facets of lunar science. This is a very useful reference work for a broad audience, not limited to the professional lunar scientist: general astronomers, researchers, theoreticians, practitioners, graduate students, undergraduate students, and astrophysicists as well as geologists and engineers. The title includes all current areas of lunar science, with the topical entries being established tertiary literature. The work is technically suitable to most advanced undergraduate and graduate students. The articles include topics of varying technical levels so that the top scientists of the field find this work a benefit as well as the graduate students and the budding lunar scientists. A few examples of topical areas are as follows: Basaltic Volcanism, Lunar Chemistry, Time and Motion Coordinates, Cosmic Weathering through Meteoritic Impact, Environment, Geology, Geologic History, Impacts and Impact Processes, Lunar Surface Processes, Origin and Evolution Theories, Regolith, Stratigraphy, Tectonic Activity, Topography, Weathering through ionizing radiation from the solar wind, solar flares, and cosmic rays.

UNRAVELLING AERIAL MYSTERIES OF THE PAST Charles Fort published his first and most influential book, The Book of the Damned, a century ago in 1919, collecting together many historical reports of strange aerial phenomena. Since the birth of the UFO controversy in 1947 Fort’s writings have been cited in countless books and web pages. Yet this is the first time in a hundred years that researchers have systematically verified the sources and content of every one of these oft-recycled stories, correcting many errors, placing each case in its historical context, and submitting it to a careful scientific investigation in an attempt to find a conventional answer. What were these reported phenomena? Is it possible to find non-exotic explanations? With the advantage of modern knowledge, methods, and resources, in most cases the answer proves to be yes. Some of the solutions found may shock the general reader and surprise even specialists. Yet in the end a few well-documented events remain unexplained.

The invention of the telescope at the dawning of the 17th century has revolutionized humanity's understanding of the Universe and our place within it. This book traces the development of the telescope over four centuries, as well as the many personalities who used it to uncover brand-new revelations about the Sun, Moon, planets, stars and distant galaxies. Starting with early observers such as Thomas Harriot, Galileo, Johannes Hevelius, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Robert Hooke and Christian Huygens, the book explores how these early observers arrived at essentially correct ideas concerning the objects they studied. Moving into the 18th and 19th centuries, the author describes the increasing sophistication of telescopes both large and small, and the celebrated figures who used them so productively, including the Herschels, Charles Messier, William Lassell and the Earls of Rosse. Many great discoveries were also made with smaller instruments when placed in the capable hands of the Struve dynasty, F.W. Bessel, Angelo Secchi and S.W Burnham, to name but a few. Nor were all great observers of professional ilk. The book explores the contributions made by the 'clerical astronomers,' William Rutter Dawes, Thomas William Webb, T.E.R Philips and T.H.E.C Espin, as well as the lonely vigils of E.E. Barnard, William F. Denning and Charles Grover. And in the 20th century, the work of Percival Lowell, Leslie Peltier, Eugene M. Antoniadi, Clyde Tombaugh, Walter Scott Houston, David H. Levy and Sir Patrick Moore is fully explored. Generously illustrated throughout, this treasure trove of astronomical history shows how each observer's work led to seminal developments in science, and providing key insights into how we go about exploring the heavens today.