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There were two things which, in concert, got me hooked.
1. A friend's dad had a small Tasco refractor, which my mate and I, all of 14 or 15 years of age at the time, used to look at Jupiter and its moons. That sight has never left me....I simply could not believe how accessible the universe is. Somehow, before that, the heavens seemed to my awareness to be impossibly far away. Looking at Jupiter taught me how I can actually have a direct experience of the cosmos. A year or two later, the same friend's family took me to an observatory at a place called Trunkey Creek, somewhere in the Orange / Blainey area in central NSW, and I still recall with awe the sight of Omega Centauri. Wow!
2. Studying planetary geology as part of the HSC in late high school. Geology per se fascinated me, and when that was combined with studying the solar system, I was smacked between the eyeballs. With all of the prizes I won in year 12 (topped every subject, including geology), I bought an astronomy encyclopedia and The South Sky, by Reidy & Wallace. I didn't have the cash to buy a scope at that stage, but just looking naked eye at the heavens from Turramurra (which had quite dark skies in the 1980s) with the aid of some reading material was magic.
With all the busyness of life with dating, marriage, children, I drifted away from astronomy for a long time, but when I received an inheritance two years ago, I finally had the chance to buy a telescope (and a very good one at that), and the rest is history!
Good luck with the project!
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