This chapter pays tribute to the programme The Sky At Night and its founder Sir Patrick Moore. He died in December 2012 at the age of 89. In 2012 during in his final months, the programme was recorded at his house in Selsey, Sussex and he continued to present it himself, despite failing health. He was assisted by his team of young professors, who continue to present the programme today.
The second week of February was cold in Cheshire. Nighttime temperatures were below freezing and there was snow on the hills. Liz made her usual visits to friends and fundraising groups as well as running the house, doing the shopping, cooking the food and feeding Jessie.
On Saturday 11th, Liz and Olivia set off in the jeep to visit a friend in the town of Buxton. The Pennines were covered in a layer of snow that looked like icing sugar on a cake. They drove up into the hills and stopped to admire the wintery scene. Olivia did some pencil sketches of the landscape and took some reference photos on her iPhone.
It had been nearly three weeks since her encounter on the Edge, and despite trying her best to stay attentive in class, participate, complete homework, do revision and generally work hard there was no visible improvement. She was still scoring low in assessment tests and was having difficulty in following the work.
Olivia found the situation depressing. Soon it would be Wednesday 22nd, the day of the New Moon, the day she and Jessie would go up onto the Edge and hopefully make contact again.
She looked forward to telling Esther about all her problems and frustrations. Yes, she could talk to her mum, and her mum tried hard, but there were some things she couldn’t talk about. She had no close friends at school.
As for a boyfriend, she was far behind the other girls. She was young for her years, but she felt little desire to grow up; perhaps due to her Chinese-influenced upbringing, or her personality, or both.
It’s not that she hadn’t thought of what it would be like to have a boyfriend, because she had. The problem was that all the boys she ever seemed to come into contact with were immature and superficial, they always tried to put on an act and show off. They didn’t share her interest in art, science and astronomy. All they ever wanted to do was get drunk and misbehave. Maybe one day she would meet someone, but for now, she would concentrate on preparing for her exams.
There were only three more days before the half term holiday. That would give her a chance to relax a little and try to catch up.
Alan returned for the lesson with Olivia two weeks later on Monday 13th after his conference in Norway. He was keen to make the most of the time with Olivia and had taken the trouble to check the subject areas students needed to cover. The lesson passed quickly. Liz was all set to have a good long chat with him but he said he needed to excuse himself as he had to be back at home for a conference call at 6.30pm.
“That’s a pity,” said Liz. “He must be very busy.”
“Oh yes, he’s always very busy.”
“So how did you get on in the lesson?”
“Fine, he went through all the subjects I needed to cover,” Olivia explained. “I told him I was still finding it hard, but he just said I need to take it step by step, and not to feel down. He’s really nice.”
“Has he mentioned anything about a wife or children?”
“No, I think he lives alone.”
“I wonder how old he is? I must ask him when his birthday is. We must get him a card and a present.”
“I think I can find that out,” said Olivia, fetching the laptop computer. “Here, look.”
She did a search under his name and there were plenty of pages in the search results. He was listed on the University website and also on the pages of other universities where he had worked or attended events.
It wasn’t long before Olivia tracked down his date of birth.
“It was the 7th of June, 1954.”
“1954, goodness that means he’s 57. He looks about ten years younger. Quite handsome actually, very old fashioned, a bit eccentric.”
“Yes, he is a bit weird. But he says some very interesting things.”
“Oh yes?”
“Like, he said he thinks It’s possible for life to continue even after someone’s died.”
“Goodness, how did you get onto that subject?”
“I don’t know, he just started to talk about it, suddenly. He’s like that.”
“You wouldn’t expect someone like him to believe in something like that.”
“No, I suppose not. Well mum, I’m going to get on with my homework.”
“Okay Livvy let me know if you need any help.”
Olivia went up to her room and buried herself in her books.
The school broke up for the half term holiday on Friday 10th of February. She would have a whole week off school and she was going to devote it to her science studies, art and staying up late. That’s what she loved to do. She was a night bird.
On Monday night there was a very special TV show that she and her dad liked to watch together. Dennis had postponed his departure by a few days in order to watch the programme. It wasn’t available outside the UK and he didn’t want to miss it. It was the BBC astronomy programme The Sky at Night. It had been running continuously since 1957 and was presented by the now elderly astronomer, Sir Patrick Moore. He was famous for his untidy hair and the monocle he always wore in his right eye. He looked like the typical ‘crazy professor’, but had never studied astronomy or held a position at a university. He was a writer and a TV presenter and had inspired many people young and old to take an interest in the night sky.
At ten minutes after midnight she and her father sat in the living room waiting for the programme to begin. Liz was in the kitchen using Facebook. As soon as the sad, majestic theme music came on she walked into the living room, narrowed her eyes and squinted at the screen. She had forgotten where she had put her glasses.
“Ooh, I don’t know why they have to have that music, I always feel so depressed when I hear it.”
“Mum, it doesn’t matter about the music, It’s what’s in the programme that’s important. Look, this month it’s about infra red and space telescopes.”
On the screen the elderly astronomer appeared and introduced the programme. He was sitting in a leather armchair, as usual wearing his monocle, his white hair quite untidy. There were books and charts behind him. The programme was recorded in the living room his house on the south coast of England as he was unable to travel to a studio.
“Oh, look at him,” said Liz, “he’s very old now isn’t he? He looks quite weak, and listen to how he’s talking, he can’t say the words properly. I remember him when he was younger. He introduced the moon landings in 1969.”
“And I met him once when I was working abroad,” said Dennis. “He came to our expats society to do a talk, he was excellent. Just a projector and a few slides. It was one of the best astronomy presentations I’ve ever seen.”
The three of them stared silently at the television screen for a few moments.
“Oh, Livvy,” said Liz, smiling, “you must be the only teenage girl watching this programme. It’s not exactly the hot topic of conversation among the girls at school is it?”
“Mum, I’m interested in astronomy,” Olivia protested. “The programme is about astronomy. That’s why I’m watching it. Why do people say I shouldn’t be watching a programme like this? Maybe if I was spotty and wore glasses then it would be okay. And look there are young presenters too. The dark haired one’s really nice.”
Next to the old man sat two younger men and a woman. They enthusiastically discussed the topic of space telescopes, and the old man sat quietly occasionally making a comment.
“Ooh!” said Liz, checking out the young dark haired professor who was now speaking to camera, “now I understand why you’re watching the programme!”
“Oh, Mum!”
“Well as I always said, the most attractive feature of a man is his intelligence. That’s why I married Dad!”
Dennis looked up and smiled.
“Well I’ll leave you two to your programme, I’m heading up to bed.”
Olivia and her dad watched in silence. The Sky at Night inspired a sense of awe and respect amongst astronomy lovers all over Britain.
Olivia thought about what her mum had said about the young presenter. Maybe she would go to university and one day meet a young man like him: modest, good looking, highly intelligent and dedicated to his area of research. It was a shame she never seemed to meet any boys like him. She would have to wait.
By the time the final credits appeared on the screen, it was already the early hours of the night.
Olivia felt like walking outside to look at the stars but it was cloudy. After the theme music faded, there was a late weather forecast. The cloudy weather would continue for the next few days. Dennis switched off the TV and they both made their way upstairs.
“Have a good time in China, Dad, and take care,” said Olivia, yawning.
“I will,” he said, giving her a goodbye hug before retiring to the bedroom to grab a couple of hours rest. The taxi was coming at 4.30am. Olivia went to her room and stayed awake reading an astronomy magazine. After a while, she fell asleep with thoughts of the night sky on her mind.
Olivia and Liz were both fast asleep and it was still dark as the KLM plane took off from Manchester Airport at around 6am. It arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport about an hour later, just as Olivia and Liz were waking up. She was sitting in her second class of the day at the moment when Dennis boarded his onward flight, but it would not be taking him to China.
In this chapter, there is a reference to another influential scientist. The character of Alan Matthews is inspired by the celebrated codebreaker and mathematician, Alan Turing. The birthday of Alan Matthews, 7 June 1954, is the day Alan Turing tragically died at his home on Adlington Road not far from Alderley Edge, at the age of 41. The next chapter will be uploaded on Saturday 25th October between 10pm and midnight.