PEOPLE I HAVE MET by Sir Patrick Moore My life now goes back a long way. I am now classed as a Senior Citizen (translation, Old Coot) and inevitably I have met a good many fascinating people. So I will begin at the very start of the war, when I said I was eighteen (they believed me!) and I went straight across the Atlantic to learn how to fly. Actually I did my training in Canada, but on two occasions, during brief spells of leave, I went down to the United States.

Flying heroes

On the first occasion, at a small gathering, I met no less a person than Orville Wright, the very first man to go aloft in a heavier-than-air machine. His brother Wilbur had died in 1912, which was rather before my time. Orville Wright did very little flying after 1920, and, as he told me, he was saddened to see aircraft used in warfare. He was quiet, unassuming - I liked him immensely, and I regret that I met him only once. Presumably there are now no people who can remember that epic flight from Kitty Hawk, a century ago.

Playing piano with Einstein

On my second foray I was invited to a science meeting, and to a small reception afterwards- and there was Albert Einstein. He is, without a doubt, worthy to rank with Newton, and I found him to be exactly what I expected; unworldly, communicative and blissfully unaware of his unique status.

I remember asking him if he could explain 'infinity' in non-mathematical terms, and he replied that he had never been able to do so in a way that would really satisfy him. Well, if Einstein couldn't, I am sure that nobody else can. One episode sticks in my mind: he was an expert violinist, and I accompanied him on the piano as he played Saint-Saëns' Swan. Oh for a tape of it - but there were no tapes in those far-off times!

Wernher von Braun

Rocket man

Later, after the war, I met and came to know a very different type of man: Wernher von Braun. As you may remember, he was a German rocket pioneer who masterminded the building of the V2 missiles used to bombard London and Norway at the very tail end of the war.

The rocket base was a Peenemünde, in the Baltic, and in 1943 Peenemünde was attacked by RAF Bomber Command. I wasn't on that raid, but as an RAF navigator I might well have been. When I met von Braun, there were no ill feelings, and we got on very well; subsequently he joined me in a Sky at Night TV programme. Certainly he played a major role in America's Apollo missions to the Moon.

There can be no doubt that some of the German rocket men took in organising slave labour, and at least one of them, Arthur Rudolph was eventually forced to renounce his hard-won American citizenship and return to Germany. Von Braun had had no choice but to join the Nazi party. But he was a very lukewarm Nazi, and at one point Hitler had him arrested for paying too much attention to the Moon than to weapons of war-an accusation which was absolutely true!

No-one could hate the Nazis more than me (they killed my fiancée, many of my best friends, and did their best to kill me). But on my knowledge of him I am ready to give von Braun a 'clean bill'. I do not believe that he was personally involved in atrocities, and it is also clear that he was in no position to prevent them. We will never know the full truth; I can only give my personal opinion.

The crew of Apollo 11

Apollo astronauts

I am delighted to know, or have known, many of those astronauts, headed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, both of whom I have met many times, and with whom I have broadcast. I remember one early TV programme, not long after Neil's "... One small step" onto the bleak rocks of the Lunar sea of Tranquillity.

Neil took part in a conventional "knocking" programme and was fed the usual questions: "was it worth the huge sum of money?", "isn't space research a waste of time?" and so on. He then came straight into the Sky at Night studio, sat down, and said "Now let's talk about the Moon." We did.

Buzz Aldrin paid me the compliment of flying over, only a few months ago to present the BAFTA Award to me. I did indeed feel honoured. He and Neil will never be forgotten. But they are not alike - Neil is not fond of publicity, whereas Buzz is, and is still very much in the public eye. Long may he remain so!

Valentina Tereshkova

Russian cosmonauts

Yuri Gagarin, the first space-man, I met several times. He had a most attractive personality, and his death in an air crash in the 1960s was a tragedy. Of the other Russians, Alexei Leonov is a great character; he was the first to "walk" in space, and is a talented artist. He is great fun to be with. Like Valentina Tereshkova, another splendid person, he speaks good English.

I remember taking the chair for Valentina, years ago, at a major meeting in the Festival Hall. A very tough journalist stood up, and asked her: "What qualities would you look for in a man going to the Moon?" Valentina gave him a charming smile. "Do you mean if I was going too?", collapse of journalist!

Other famous people

I have shaken hands with the greatest pianist, Rachmaninov. I wish I had met violinist, Fritz Kreisler, but I never did. I knew comedian Will Hay well, he was made a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society when, in 1933 he observed a brilliant white spot on Saturn. Michael Bentine, one of the original line up of The Goon Show, was one of my very closest friends; I miss him tremendously.

Edmond Halley

Favourite historical astronomer

Going back, whom would I have liked to meet, given the power to board Dr. Who's Tardis? I think I would select Edmond Halley, of comet fame. He was the second Astronomer Royal, and died in 1742. He was a jovial character, with a strong sense of humour; at one point he was in charge of a Naval vessel, and Flamsteed, his predecessor as Astronomer Royal, commented acidly that Halley "swore and drank brandy like a sea-captain," which he undoubtedly did.

It is also reliably recorded that when the Czar of Russia came to England to learn about ship-building, he became very friendly with Halley at Greenwich, after a far from teetotal evening, the czar climbed into a wheelbarrow and Halley pushed him into a hedge. Significantly, the Observatory files do contain a receipt for repairs to a damaged wheelbarrow.

Yes, I think I would have liked Halley. I am sorry that he died over a hundred and eighty years before I was born. Typically his last act on Earth was to call for a glass of wine - and drink it!