We were greeted by Dawn, one of Sir Patrick's carers who took us through the “Cat Airlock” to the “Study” where Sir Patrick was.   This room was full of books on Astronomy, many of which had been written by Sir Patrick.   There were, on display, the many certificates, diplomas and awards that he has been given over the years.

Astronomy Group Members with the late Sir Patrick Moore.

Although Sir Patrick, or Patrick as he prefers to be called, is now unable to do things for himself, and has round the clock carers to look after him, we all found that his brain was as sharp as ever.   His answers to our questions were excellent and he also spoke about some parts of his life; he told us that he had met and played a musical duet with Albert Einstein, he had met Orville Wright.

He also told us that he had met Yuri Gagarin, the first man to go into space, and Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the moon; we could have listened to him for many hours.

We were given a guided tour of his three astronomical telescopes, by Trudy who is one of his carers but is also an amateur astronomer, these telescopes are in the garden and are housed in “Observatories” and are still used by his friends all of whom are amateur astronomers, and we were privileged to be invited back to use the telescopes later this year.

One of the late Sir Patrick's Telescopes.

All to soon it was time to take our leave and return to Maldon after a very interesting day.

Malcolm Case.