Patrick Moore in the 1950s; Moore argued against Lord Dowding and other UFO proponents. He was invited to present a live astronomy programme and said the greatest difficulty was finding an appropriate theme tune; the opening of Jean Sibelius's "Pelléas et Mélisande" was chosen and used throughout the programme's existence. The programme was originally named "Star Map" before "The Sky at Night" was chosen in the "Radio Times". On 24 April 1957, at 10:30 pm, Moore presented the first episode about the Comet Arend–Roland. The programme was pitched to casual viewers up to professional astronomers, in a format which remained consistent from
Patrick Moore campaigned unsuccessfully against the closure of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in 1998. Among Moore's favourite episodes of "The Sky at Night" were those that dealt with eclipses, and he said "there is nothing in nature to match the glory of a total eclipse of the Sun." Moore was a BBC presenter for the total eclipse in England in 1999, though the view he and his team had from Cornwall was obscured by cloud. Moore was the patron of the South Downs Planetarium & Science Centre, which opened in 2001. On 1 April 2007, a 50th anniversary semi-spoof edition of the