How old were you when you got your first telescope?

[h0ughy]

Ahh this one should be interesting, to see who had a life before they met their other half!

I know I had my first scope well before I got married, she who must be obeyed had no real idea what I did in my spare time. Mind you things haven't changed that much! :D

[iceman]

29, ie: last year :)

I wasn't into astronomy that much before about 2 years ago.. I wish i'd got into it earlier, but now is a great time for amateur astronomy because equipment is so much cheaper (and better quality) than it was several years ago.

[BC]

While I'm quite the newbie of late, I started out under 10 years old (still have the original Orion 60mm, made in Japan. I just had a very big break of 3 decades. As I was going through my old astronomy stuff recently, I found a large National Geographic moon poster which outlined the details of the upcoming moon mission 1969 - pretty cool bit of history I thought.

[Astroman]

I actually bought my first scope about 10yrs ago, what a mistake that was :P Tasco 60mm 402 refractor? I use the word refractor losely, I think a coke bottle would be better.

Before that the earliest sort of scope I can remember is a zoom type refractor my parents bought me it was only a toy, but gave me my first look at the heavens, that was around the time of Halley.

[ving]

about 10 i guess...it was a 50mm refractor froma dept store :)

[mch62]

First scope was for my seventh B/D and was a White Tasco 40mm refractor table tripode with 15-45 x zoom eyepiece thingy.
Still have the lens from it.
Can't beleave that i can remember it that well. :rofl:

Have had about 7-8 DIY's and commercial scopes since then.
Some Commercial scopes better off forgeting about.
Had a break for about 5 years after my last nightmare. :whistle:

Mark

[Starkler]

I got the Tasco 50mm 15x-50x zoom scope also at about age 8.
After melting its innards by pointing it at the sun attempting eyepiece projection, I hadnt bothered with scopes again until three years ago.

[Ganymede]

I was 42. Used to fly aeroplanes for a hobby but had to give that up a few years ago when it all got too expensive!:ashamed:

[toetoe]

Always wanted one but never got one until my birthday earlier this year. Now that my eq mount is broken it is like not having one all over again as i can't use it until the new mount arives. :(

[cometcatcher]

I was 10 when I got my first scope, a Tasco 60mm 15-60X refractor. That was 32 years ago. :)

I still use the steel tripod of that old scope with a barn door tracker mounted on top. The tube assembly is used as a guide scope.

But I think what sparked my interest in astronomy more than the actual telescope was the book I got with it. An old 1973 edition of Atlas of the Universe. I still use it's star charts today.

[dhumpie]

My first scope was a orange Celestron Cometron 40mm f/20 refactor and I still have it today. That was back during the Halley's Comet craze in the mid 80's! This was my first and only "apo" (its f/20 so there is no false color to speak of at all)

Darren

[Daring Dave]

My 1st was an el cheapo 60mm refractor....I thought it was fantastic..... :scared3:

That was until I bought my 8" dob.... :2thumbs:

I was mid 30's I think...

Dave

[Nightshift]

Lets see now, fashioned my first objective lens and eyepiece from polished toenails and jammed them in to a section of Mum's umbilical cord for an OTA. The image was murky but I'm not sure if it was the crude lenses or the amniotic fluid.

[Daring Dave]

Perhaps the womb needed to be colimated ??

:einstein:

[ballaratdragons]

I was 27. I have been a stargazer my whole life and I remember, about 8-10 y.o. wishing I had a telescope to see all the wonderful things up close.

Well it took a looooong time to eventually get one and I was wrapped. It was a Home-made reflector.

PVC sewerage tube and lots of bits of junk, and I bought the 4.25" Mirror& cell, R&P focuser, Spider & secondary from a shop in Melbourne for $799!!!!

21 years later and I finally got my 12" Dobbie. Slow progress but I'm still enjoying every bit of viewing I do.

[Sausageman]

I was still in the womb.
People were taking pics of me, so I ordered one to get back at them. :rofl:
I got it from Gallileo. He sold his first one to me after he made the second.

:2thumbs:

I'm nearly joking....LOL

Mike

[Dave47tuc]

I was about 7 I think maybe 8 :confused: It was some time ago (I'm now 41)

So I have been observing for a while :D

[asimov]

My first scope was the same one, lol. The zoom thingy was you could pull the draw-tube out 3 clicks. Those were the days!

[[1ponders]]

Tasco 60mm, 15-60X zoom. Xmas pressy when I was about 12. Had it until about 18months ago when it blew off the front verandah. That's what got this madness started. Still have the lens though:) Trying to work out how to convert it to a guide scope now.

[Mick]

10 years old, 60mm Tasco for Christmas. :)

[syzygy]

I must have been about 10. My mother took me to the Easter show in Sydney and the Amateur Astronomers Supply Co (long since Astro Optics) had a stand in the exhibition hall.

I'd never seen a telescope before and was just transfixed. After my first Nortons Star Atlas and the Golden Books Astronomy guide and some months of pleading, mum took me over to their Crows Nest store and put an Ascotron 4.5" F8 reflector on lay-by for Xmas. I was so proud to show her Saturn from our backyard. Memories....

Regards,
Chris

[cahullian]

Sounds like Tasco has a lot to answer for lol

[astroron]

Interest in astronomy since Sputnik in 1957, first scope was a 50 mm spotting scope in Malaya 1968 , Jason 60 mm refractor in July 1986 20 cm SCT in 1990, 40cm Dob 2002, Next scope 1 metre, ( only kidding)
now 62 so I was 26 astroron :astron: :stargaze:

[Kieken]

9 or 10 years old and a cheap department store scope :). And to be honest I've never seen anything with it.

[Striker]

I was 7 months younger then I am now.

I'm a Late starter.

[h0ughy]

well looking at the data so far it seems as though the future generations need to be influenced at a young age? And then at an older age they are more than influenced!! :D

[[1ponders]]

Shouldn't that be "more Affluenced" h0ughy. IF I'd had the money and the LX200 was around when I was 12 I would have bought it. :D

[h0ughy]

Whatever, but the kids between 10 and 15 seem to be the ones to target. primary schools and the lower years at high school are the ones our Society seem to attend for viewing nights. Mind you I have done a couple of HSC nights for some high schools.

I remember (a long time ago) :D in year 9 playng with a 10" newtonian in science. Even though it was daylight it hooked me!

[cometcatcher]

Something is wrong here. In the main forum it says the last post was made at 10:58 today (31st) but the last post above is on the 21st at 9:53? What's going on?

[slice of heaven]

Its the time the last person polled

[cometcatcher]

Ah ok. Thought me computer was on the blink!

[gaa_ian]

Like almost everyone else my first scope was a Tasco refractor (12Y.O)
Looked at the moon & stars etc ....that lasted a few years.
Bought my 10" Dob 2 1/2 yrs ago, but have remained interested since I was a kid, now a I'm a big kid with kids who are starting at the right end of astronomy , with a DOB. :thumbsup: :family:

[mickal555]

I got mine when I was 14...

Last september, it was a gift from a telescope shop: Sirius Optics.

It's an 8" Newt. Dob. 1200mm.

I love it!

[TJD]

age is not a problem until you you buy a 125 pound 16" and you have to carry it 100 yards. not that i could do that.:D

[Ric]

I kicked off at around 11 with a Tasco 2.5 inch but quickly moved up to a Celestron C8 orange tube. Still got it too.

Cheers

Ps: it then took another 30 years to get the LX200R 12", at that rate I'll be 76 before I get the 16" and 106 when I get the 20"

[bones]

When I was about 8 one of my older brothers got a 60mm white Tasco up to 60 times with the clicky eyepiece to increase magnification. I used it a bit through my teens. I remember mucking around one day trying to see sun spots on a piece of paper and wondering why I could smell burning plastic ... Whoops. Bro wasn't happy. Anyway I always said I'd get something decent if I ever bought one for myself ... I was 38 when I finally splurged on a CPC11 (with my wifes blessing of course) and been stoked ever since.

[jjjnettie]

I bought my kids a 60mm refractor for Christmas 2004.
No prize for guessing who used it the most. I was 41 at the time.
12 months later I sold one of my horses to fund the purchase of a 10"Dob.

[Lester]

I was 13, got a 8" Newtonian kit to assemble, made the EQ mount out of 3/4" water pipe.

That was in 1970.

[Barrykgerdes]

I first used a telescope when I was about 8 but I never thought of looking at the stars. I was more interested in trains that I could see great with a telescope from my grandparents house.

My next telescope was one I made when I was 14, a spectacle lens with a focal length of about 30", two concentric cardboard tubes and the lenses salvaged from the viewfinder of Box Browny. It enabled me to see craters on the moon and Jupiters 4 moons. It was not much good for land objects because the image was upside down. However I figured out that a second lens in the focus tube would make the image upright which it did so I stopped gazing at the stars and used it as a normal land telescope.

My interest in astronomy was not rekindled till about 1990 when I bought a 4.5" Tasco reflector. I quickly progressed to an 8" in a Dobsonian mount and then a LX200 10". Next was a 12" LX200GPS. I will beat Ric to the 16" because I will have mine at 74 in about 6 weeks.

Baz

[pgc hunter]

I was prolly 9, I got a Tasco 60mm refractor for christmas and i was overjoyed!. Then, the next day, one of the screws holding in the mount broke, redering the scope useless. Took 2 months for them to replace :mad2:

But I still got much joy from that scope - gave me my first ever view of Saturn on a warm summers evening, will never forget it and the excitement of owning a scope :D

[sherm]

My first astro instrument at age 24, was a pair of 7X50 Tasco binoculars mounted on a homemade tripod. Six month later (on the advice of a friend) I put $125 (1965) into purchasing a 60mm Unitron refractor with altazmuth mount and slow motion controls. That was good advice; my little Unitron has been a most useful instrument ever since. In the early 90's I added a 5 inch Celestron(Smt-Cas) and a 254mm (10 inch) Dob which all the kids call Big Red or Mr Wms. Big Red Cannon (I'm a retired teacher). My current binoculars are 10X50 Adlerblicks. Many satisfying hours spent with all four instruments, looking at the sky alone and sharing sky views with others.

Cheers,
Sherm
:whistle:

[Baddad]

1995, 10x50 Bushnell binos, 44th B/day gift. Then I traded a sewing machine and an overlocker for Ziess binos.
My partner and I are avid AFL fans and attended the Bris Lions home matches. We had to negotiate who got to use the Ziess or the lesser Bushnell.
In '97 I offered to buy my 15 yr old son a $600-$800 astro scope. He declined?????
Feb '09 I gifted myself with a Celestron 8 SE. Schmidt Cass. I now suffer with Aperture fever.

[telecasterguru]

I worked at K Mart on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings when I was still at school and was payed the princely sum of $8 per week and saved up for a 3" reflector which cost $59 in 1974 which was a huge amount of money at the time. I was 15.
The scope fell apart about 2 years later and I have only just started astronomy again after all these years.

[TJD]

last year i got my first good telescope (6 sct) before that i had loved binoculars since i was to 2 and had a fasination for science now im 13 and i own a 12 dob 3 pairs of binoculars (10-50,10-25,10/30-50 zoom,8-50,8-21)
and studey stars till i fall a sleep i cant get enough of the night sky:D

no history behind my story:P

when im 74 i should have 378" up 6" each year or to get a job at sighting springs observatory:D

[Shano592]

My first one was in about a month's time. Looks like an 8-inch Newt.

Until then, I'll keep using this borrowed 60mm Celestron sighting scope.

[TJD]

beter late then never

[alan meehan]

Iwas 12 yrs old 1n 1967 and talked my parents into bying me a tasco reflector , cant remember what ever happened to it,all i know is tasco must have done a good trade in telescopes back then everyone seems to have had one.

[spacezebra]

Hi all

Late bloomer :).

Cheers Petra d.

[Jen]

I got my first scope finally :doh: just over a year ago :rolleyes: for my 35th birthday :D
Looks like i have some catching up to do :lol::lol:
:P

[Kevnool]

I,m with Petra on this one.....cheers Kev.