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
BBC Sky at Night Moore on the cover and included a copy of Moore's Moon map as a free gift, sold out and back issues are no longer available. Copies of Issue 1 have since sold for over £100 on eBay. In April 2007, the magazine celebrated the 50th anniversary of "The Sky at Night" on BBC TV with a specially-themed issue, which was produced in two different covers. Patrick Moore was an editorial advisor serving as Editor Emeritus, along with Chris Lintott, serving as Contributing Editor respectively. BBC Sky at Night BBC Sky at Night magazine is a British monthly magazine about astronomy