His first television appearance was in a debate about the existence of flying saucers following a spate of reported sightings 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 its inception. Moore presented every monthly episode except for one in July 2004 when he suffered a near-fatal bout of food poisoning caused by eating a contaminated goose egg and was replaced for that episode by Chris Lintott. Moore appears in the "Guinness World Records" book as the world's longest-serving TV presenter having presented the programme since 1957. From 2004 to 2012, the programme was broadcast from Moore's home, when arthritis prevented him from travelling to the studios. Over the years he received many lucrative offers to take his programme onto other networks, but rejected them because he held a 'gentlemen's agreement' with the BBC.