Philip Pugh

One word read by a million people is better than a million words read by a single person.

I write to be read, mostly in the special interest sector, notably astronomy. I have written about my interests since 1980 when I had my first magazine article published.

I have four books traditionally published under the "Patrick Moore's Practical Astronomy" series, including the former astronomy No 1 bestseller, "Observing the Sun with Coronado Telescopes and Filters" which had a large cast of contributors.

More recently, I have achieved a lifetime's ambition to write a beginner book and published "Being An Astronomer". I also have several booklets available under the "Phil's Scribblings" series.

Just like the old cliche about comic actors wanting to play Shakespeare, many non-fiction writers like to turn to fiction. I had a 12-part serial published in a computer magazine and have returned to an old project where the main character begins a journey of self-discovery and questions the nature of life, the universe and everything.

One of the biggest fallacies is that you need a lot of money to enjoy astronomy. Whilst a large budget and a wise choice of equipment certainly helps, it is possible to do interesting things with little more than a pair of binoculars and compact digital camera. I don't have a big budget but, yes, I do get more out of astronomy by having telescopes and a DSLR camera. It is the latter that I use the most, snapping the Moon, bright deep sky objects and Jupiter's moons, just to name a few targets. Compared to most astronomers, I observe and take photographs very frequently but do not have many longer sessions.

Although I do not travel much these days, many of my astronomy photos and observations were made abroad, in places like Australia and New Zealand.