HE'S played the piano with Einstein, shaken Rachmaninov's hand and swapped stories with one of the Wright brothers.

And that's not to mention a career as the world's longest-serving television presenter, meeting prestigious guests like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and witnessing some of the most breathtaking astronomical events of the 20th century.

Yet Sir Patrick Moore, to whom these achievements belong, is quite unassuming about his place in history and instead sees himself as "just one of the boys".

Although his maps were used by the Russians when they obtained the first pictures of the far side of the moon, he says the advance of technology means such work is now obsolete.

"I now see my role as one of exciting the interest of other people," Sir Patrick explained, on the eve of his 80th birthday lecture tour of Britain.

"At my lectures, you get people of all ages, from six to 90.

"My favourite part is the question and answer session at the end.

"The questions are great fun and I get asked all sorts of things about conspiracy theories, or whether there's life out there."

This year Sir Patrick's tour will focus on Mars -- The Next Frontier -- where, he thinks, a separate species of mankind could eventually evolve.

He said: "Mars is a world unlike any other.

"We don't know how the conditions would affect a boy or a girl born there. I don't know how quickly a permanent colony would develop.

"I think it depends a lot on radiation and politics.

"If we have any more silly wars we won't do it very quickly, that's for sure."

Sir Patrick's interest in astronomy began at the age of six when he picked up his mother's copy of The Story of the Solar System, published in 1898.

Since then he has written over 60 books on astronomy, all typed on his 1908 typewriter.

One of these was spotted by a BBC producer who approached him to present The Sky at Night in 1957.

Sir Patrick said: "I said I would have a go and we'd see how it went. That was 46 years ago."

The programme has seen many memorable highlights for Sir Patrick, one of which was his presence at NASA when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

Over the years there have been many theories that Armstrong's historic moment was staged, but Sir Patrick scoffs at such suggestions.

"How anyone can believe that is beyond me," he said. "It's completely barmy."

However, Sir Patrick had already met a number of remarkable people before his television career even began.

While training to be a pilot in Canada, he made a trip to New York to attend a scientists' conference.

There he encountered Einstein and provided the piano accompaniment to his violin rendition of Saint-Saens The Swan.

"If only we'd had a tape to record it!" exclaimed Sir Patrick. "But there were no tapes then." On another occasion he bumped into Orville Wright and had a discussion with him about aircraft, and even managed to shake Rachmaninov's hand following one of the composer's last ever concerts.

In spite of this remarkable life story, it is for nearly half a century of episodes of The Sky at Night that Sir Patrick will be best remembered by the British public. However, he claims the programme would have been just as good without him.

"It's the subject that makes it so popular -- it has nothing to do with me.

"I'll go on presenting it as long as I feel I'm doing in adequately. But I'm sure other people would do it much better.

"Astronomy is full of amateurs and professionals and I've been part of a large team. I've just been one of the boys."

You can catch Sir Patrick at the Tameside Hippodrome, Ashton-under-Lyne, on Sunday at 7.30pm. Call (0161) 3083223 for details.