Queen guitarist Dr. Brian May isn’t just known for his unique way of manipulating six strings with high tension floating above some magnets, he also knows his way around a quasar and this knowledge could see him hosting the BBC’s long-running program The Sky At Night.
The Sky At Night is a monthly astronomy show that has been hosted by Sir Patrick Moore since its inception in 1957 but following his death earlier this month at age 89 the BBC have been looking to fill his shoes.
“Both of them have a terrific gift for communication, which I must say I am quite jealous of,” Professor David Southwood, President of the Royal Astronomical Society told The Daily Mail. “Brian is an enthusiast for astronomy, exactly like Patrick. Patrick cared about the moon as much as black holes as much as life on Mars. He didn’t discriminate. The problem with professional astronomers is that all of us have our favourite bits but Patrick could talk about anything.”
“Brian has wide experience and would grow into the job if he was given a free hand. It has got to be a larger-than-life character but no one can ever match Patrick in that regard,” Dr. Richard Miles – former president of the British Astronomial Association also told the paper.
May left his PhD studies after Queen found success in the 1970s but like anyone who gets a taste of science, it kept niggling at his brain until he returned to finish his work in 2007. He was awarded a doctorate from Imperial College London. His guitar playing is one of the most instantly recognisable sounds in music history.
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Check out this footage of Brian May appearing with Sir Patrick Moore on The Sky At Night in 1999:
Queen fans might not realise this, but the song ’39 was written by Brian May. It is a journey song with the story corrected for relativistic time-dilation. Physics fans will squeal with delight at the line “For so many years have gone yet I’m older but a year, your mother’s eyes from your eyes call to me”:
