Sir Patrick Moore's monocle

Monocle belonging to astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore, maker and date unknown. Yellow residue likely to be glue.

Sir Patrick Moore (1923–2012) hosted the BBC’s The Sky at Night for over 50 years, commencing on 26 April 1957. The programme was one of Britain’s longest-running TV shows (and the longest run by the same presenter). In 1969 he was part of the BBC commentary team that described the Moon landings.

He was best known for his popularisation work, and described himself as an amateur astronomer as he never had formal training. However, his astronomical observations were significant in their own right; both NASA and the Soviet space authorities used his lunar atlas to prepare for robotic and crewed missions to the Moon.

He began wearing monocles as a teenager and they became one of his distinctive idiosyncrasies. Moore allegedly glued his monocle in place, likely accounting for the yellow residue on the monocle frame.