Good news for those who look up! in My things ……

Since the death of Patrick Moore a year ago there has been a shadow of his long running programme ‘The Sky at Night’ he presented the programme from 1957 to his passing in December 2012, his last appearance was a recorded item aired in the January 2013 programme. Through the rest of this year the programme has been on walkabout, amid of talk of a possible end of ‘The Sky at Night’ gang of presenters have soldered on filming across sites in the UK and recently on the Canary Island’s. This was covering the glut of comets and Ison in particular, from the La Palma observatories.

About that time there was news of the programme moving to BBC4, with no programme in January 2014, the refreshed ‘Sky at Night’ starting again in its new slot in February. Though this year there has been a petition gathering to save Sir Patrick’s life work, I hope all our signature’s helped to firm up minds at the beeb! Now the latest news seems to have put the last piece of the new programme together, finding the right person to fill a very particular void, along side Chris Lintott will be Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock. She made a programme for the BBC two years ago ‘Do We Need the Moon’ I quite liked the programme and her delivery, she was bourn in London to Nigerian parents.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock is a research fellow in UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies, and has worked for the Ministry of Defense working on missile warning systems; and an Honorary Research Associate in UCL Department of Physics and Astronomy. Sir Patrick Moore always maintained he was an amateur astronomer and a professional presenter; I doubt Maggie can make such a statement – I’m looking foreword to February already.

Note, while working at the Ministry of Defense, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was taken for a tea lady!