Nice topic Stefan, thanks for bringing it up. I'm interested to see how others had wandered into this hobby too.
I've been keen in in Astronomy, space travel and rocketry since I can remember. As a primary school kid in the 80's I remember Voyager 2 meeting one planet after the next. I'd record the Quantum episodes in ABC, and re-watch them occasionally. It was riveting (even as a 8 yr old), seeing Andrew Prentice' (did I remember that name right?) predictions of the next planet that Voyager 2 would encounter. They'd replay what he said years previous, when the answers started rolling in.
Fast forward nearly 30 years (2017), and Mum says she wants a telescope for her 70th Bday. Cool... Paid off an AstroFi from Bintel, and brought it home to her. 6 Months later, and a new AZ3-R mount to simpli-Fy the Astro-Fi, she still hasn't touched it.
Whilst saving for the above, I mentioned this to my neighbour, who had an old
Bushnel Northstar Newt sitting in his shed. He passed it to me, and I cleaned it up. The linked review is very kind to this scope - it's wobblier than Michael J. Fox. Having never touched a telescope in my life, there was much reading to be done. Needless to say, the IIS articles were amazing. I bought a plossl set from Bintel, and got busy. That was September 2017, and the weather was clear every night for months. All the planets were near Zenith early in the night. I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to the hobby.
Since then the IIS Classifieds have been a great source for needed (wanted?) gear. An 80mm refractor, and C6 on a Nextar mount joined the collection. Sadly, I have no time for joining clubs, etc (I'm sure they're champs, but I just can't get out). And only my 3 year old son is interested in the family (as much as a grommet can be). So it's a fairly solitary thing. Anyone else find that too?