Pupils from King Edward's Astronomy Club were delighted to meet Sir Patrick Moore, Britain's best-loved astronomer and presenter of the Sky at Night.

Pupils visited Sir Patrick Moore for lunch at his home in Sussex in March. The trip included a tour of the observatory where the Sky at Night is filmed and a discussion on astronomy.

Born in 1923, Sir Patrick Moore began his lifelong interest for astronomy in childhood concentrating his studies upon the Moon. His lunar maps were used by the Russians in 1959 to correlate the first Lunik 3 pictures of the far side of the Moon and he was involved in the NASA Apollo missions.

In addition to astronomy Patrick has a love of chess but sadly due to arthritus he has found it difficult, in recent years, to move the chess pieces. Learning of his problem pupils from King Edward's made a specially adapted chess set ,kindly donated by the Regency Chess Company of Bath and modified by King Edward's Design and Technology Department ,which they presented to Sir Patrick Moore on their visit.