Re: The Astronomical Patrick Moore - DVD

"Ed" wrote:

Does the DVD have anything to say about Moore's popularizing the
disputed phenomenon of Venus's ashen light?

No, nor was I expecting it to say anything about it. After all, he
currently has a book about Venus where he devotes an entire chapter to
the ashen light phenomena.

You misunderstood the tack of my question. I did not ask whether the
DVD explains the ashen light phenomenon; I'm interested to know if it
spells out why he chose to popularize the notion. After all, in the mid
1900s the purported Cytherean ashen light was buried in the cemetery of
obscure, seemingly specious planetary apparitions. Patrick Moore
resurrected -- almost singlehandedly -- amateur interest in the subject,
enough to inspire Venus observing campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s.
A few professionals also got involved: In 1967, Harvard's Richard
Goody and Caltech's Thomas McCord were awarded precious time on the
Hale 200-inch to make photometric scans of Venus's nocturnal side, in
search of a feeble ashen glow. Their paper cites Patrick Moore as
their stimulus.

Nowadays the term "ashen light" rarely appears in professional
planetary science texts. Most researchers consider the subject
taboo. Books aimed at amateur astronomers spend a paragraph or
two, or at most a page, on the topic, the general tone often being
a skeptical one. To my knowledge, Moore's works on Venus over the
past half century are the only books in the English language that
allot the subject a full chapter. To courageously bang the drum for
this issue this long, despite a preponderance of doubters, illustrates
a fascinating character. It's the stuff of which good biographies
are made.


I was disappointed to learn that his autobiography makes no mention of it.

His autobiography was focused on his life; it wasn't written to push his
pet theories.

Exactly. And among the memorable aspects of a person's life are the
causes and ideas one passionately strives to promote -- especially
causes and ideas that are provocative, unpopular, or that challenge
orthodox opinion. A biography of Fred Hoyle that fails to touch on
why he so staunchly held his ground regarding Steady State cosmology
would seem incomplete. Likewise a biography of Halton Arp that touts
his exploits in the sport of fencing, rather than expound on his refusal
to concede that quasar redshifts are the product of the Doppler effect.
Neither book would need sell readers on the protagonist's pet theory;
nonetheless, readers deserve to know the motivation behind the
protagonist's choosing to be a maverick.

For his steadfast belief in the reality of ashen light on Venus,
notwithstanding the sketchy evidence, Patrick Moore willfully adopts
the role of maverick. It is part of his astronomical legacy. It is an
intriguing piece of his eventful life. I'd venture that most astronomers
and historians of observational planetary science would prefer to read
of Patrick Moore's rationale for going out on such a limb than to read
about his thoughts on, say, cricket.

--
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Mark Gingrich grinch@xxxxxxxxx San Leandro, California
.