Starwatch: Farewell and thanks for 43 years of guiding us through the night sky

It's the end of an era. Having written the Guardian's astronomy column since 1974, Alan Pickup has decided to move on " at a timely moment in the newspaper's history

As readers of Starwatch already know, after supplying the monthly star notes to the Guardian for 43 years, Alan Pickup is standing down. We bid him a fond farewell.

It all started with a trip to hospital back in 1974. Alan Pickup was visiting the astronomer Norman Matthew, the Guardian's Night Sky columnist, and found Norman fretting about the column's rapidly approaching deadline. He volunteered to step in.