Music legend Sir Brian May speaks on planetaria, Sir Patrick Moore and a substantial donation of £25,000 to further the work of the South Downs Planetarium and Science Centre in Chichester
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00:00Hello folks, Brian May here. I hope you're enjoying this experience. You're sitting in a very, very special place and something very special is happening. And I just wanted to explain why we feel that Patrick would be so overjoyed.
00:18By Patrick, of course, I mean the one and only Sir Patrick Moore. I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time with him and enjoy a great friendship with him. He became a kind of surrogate uncle for me, encouraging me to return to astronomy after many years.
00:35And for Patrick, the most important things in life, I think John will agree with me here, the most important things in life for Patrick Moore were cats.
00:48His beautiful black cat told me he was co-author on a number of publications which I worked on with him, famously very helpful.
00:59Kids. Kids who were inspired very often by Patrick himself to look ahead in their lives to being astronomers themselves.
01:10And that includes me and many of the people sitting in this room I know.
01:15And planetaria. Why planetaria?
01:19Well, this is more relevant than ever because right now there is an enormous upswing in the interest of young people
01:27in the astrophysical experiments that are going on at the moment.
01:31Thanks to NASA and ESA and JAXA.
01:34We are exploring our own solar system at a fantastic rate, mostly in unmanned vehicles, space vehicles.
01:42But we think that there are going to be manned vehicles in the near future.
01:46But the whole emphasis is on exploration and education and trying to discover where we came from,
01:54answering such questions as how the Earth was formed, how was intelligence formed, and where did we all come from.
02:01I've been involved in some of this amazing research in a number of experiments.
02:07I bring stereoscopy to it. Patrick brought everything to it.
02:11Patrick was the last of a kind.
02:13He could tell you how to get to Aristarchus from the North Pole of the Moon.
02:18He would give you directions and tell you what you were passing as you went by, like a kind of bus tour.
02:24He didn't just know astronomy. He lived it. He was there.
02:29And this is why Patrick, we know, was so devoted to planetaria and to this South Downs Planetarium in particular.
02:38He spent an awful lot of time here and was very proud of what they're achieving.
02:43Now, as I say, it's more relevant than ever.
02:46And it needs money to keep up the standard because technology is changing so fast and you cannot keep up with it without a massive investment of money, which is ongoing.
02:57So I happen to be one of the trustees of the Patrick Moore Foundation.
03:02And we feel that this moment it's the right time to invest £25,000 of the trust's money in this beautiful place.
03:11Why? Because here is where kids will learn astronomy.
03:16They get inspired by these NASA and ESA missions.
03:20But where do they learn about astronomy? They go, what do I do? How do I become an astronomer?
03:24I remember saying the same thing myself. There's not a lot of emphasis put on it in schools.
03:30It's at best a small part of the curriculum.
03:33What do they do? They come here.
03:35They sit under a beautiful virtual sky.
03:38And this is one of the most beautiful and precious in the world.
03:41One of the very few places where you will see a beautiful, sparkling analogue night sky lovingly maintained by the staff here.
03:51This is where kids will come. The astronomers of the future come here and learn firsthand about how the solar system works, how galaxies work, how the whole universe works.
04:04That's why this is important.
04:06That's why £25,000 is being invested in updating this fantastic place so that it can keep up with the changes in technology and the demands of the changing world.
04:20I was very moved by this and I haven't actually told John this yet.
04:26I don't know if it's a surprise or not.
04:28But because of my friendship with Patrick and because I share those beliefs about Planetaria and particularly about the South Downs Planetarium,
04:36I would like to match the donation which essentially has come from Patrick with my own donation, which will equal the donation that's coming from the Patrick Moore Foundation.
04:48So I'm going to add my £25,000 to the existing £25,000.
04:52And I urge you to think about contributing yourselves because this is investing in the future of your children, your grandchildren,
05:01and enriching the lives of future generations of astronomers, astrophysics, students, astronauts even.
05:11It's a wonderful cause and I can't think of a better place to invest in the future.
05:17Astronomers who study the stars are very seldom aggressive. Astronauts are notedly very much advocates of peace.
05:26This is a big contribution, not just to human knowledge, but to human behaviour, as Neil Armstrong so eloquently said in Starmas.
05:35So this is my message. Enjoy today. Think about contributing in any way you like, whether it's money or activity or help to Dr. John Mason and his wonderful team here.
05:47But just think about it. Enjoy and ask yourself if perhaps this is the place that you would like to help invest in a better future for us all. God bless.