Oddly, Sir Patrick Moore almost turned me off of astronomy as a kid. He was not all that old himself at the time so just getting started writing himself. I had built a high resolution 6" f/12 that even 55 years later will equal a top 6" APO and was having a ball seeing features on the moon even the 200" couldn't photograph. So I picked up his book on the moon. Can't recall the title. It cost a small fortune to me anyway. It told how nearly all moon craters were volcanic without ever mentioning most astronomers considered this theory weak. Since I'd read two other books from the library that listed both arguments I knew he was distorting current knowledge. But what really hurt was I was seeing features smaller than in his books drawings of various lunar features yet larger ones in the drawings couldn't be seen. I figured it was me and I was a lousy observer so didn't belong in the hobby. Fortunately, lunar orbiter images were becoming available and I had access to the originals not the junky ones making it into the newspapers and Sky and Telescope magazine. These showed I was right and the drawings in Moore's book very wrong. I never trusted him again. I should have looked to later books before making such a judgment but I've never been able to shake off the distrust that very wrong moon book instilled in me.

I do still love looking at old astronomy text to see how we learned what we have and how wrong ideas were corrected. But these books all give a fair view of the state of the knowledge at the time, this moon book didn't even though it had just been published.

I'm glad he brought so many into the hobby. Probably few had my experience. But for me the experience nearly turned turned me away from the hobby.

Rick