I was about 7-8 years old and picked up an astronomy book at the library and the rest they say , 'Is History' .
I've been an avid amateur astronomer ever since and love everything about it from stars , planets , space flight to scopes and equipment .that's me .
Nothing wrong with 'Gravity ' in 3D , awesome Hollywood movie .
Brian.
50 years ago, when I was about 6 years old, I would scrape the ice off the bedroom windows and look out at a view like this:
Sun set about 2pm and rose again around 10am, rural Finland, street lights were still 20 years in the future and often we only had candles inside.
No television but we did have the world's best light show most frosty nights.
Haven't stopped looking up since !
Still remember often calling out to my brothers to come and watch the aurora, their response most of the time was: " Seen it before " My younger sister and I would often stay up the whole night watching
the "Fox Fires"
Wow how wonderful that would be Matt, wish I could experience something like that just once in my life.
For me it was pure magic Andrew, yet some of my 6 brothers could not care less, even when the whole sky lit up from horizon to horizon for hours, they would not come outside.
Mind you it was around Minus 35 Celcius, you could pour water from a jug and watch it freeze into a lump on the ground. You dared not touch any metal with bare skin ( I was stuck to a handrail for an hour once when my brothers held my hand onto it till it froze on)
Unreal Matt!
I was an only child.
When I was young I'd read a few pages from the World Book Encyclopedia - Childcraft Vol 4 "Earth and Space" almost nightly before bed.
Fell in love with all things astro.
At around seven I saw a beautiful 40mm Tasco "built in Japan" refractor on a nice short chrome tripod at our local camera store.
Couldn't wait to save up and buy the scope.
Blew me away when I first set eyes on the moon through my little Tasco.
And now here I am.
Handed down my 40mm Tasco to my eldest son as a keeps-sake and got myself a couple of nice refractors, a SCT and a camera or two.
Sometimes I wished I was an only child !!!
My first "scope" was a Russian riflescope that we found in the attic of a neighbours barn, my friend and would take it home week about.
It is just amazing what is available to amateur astronomers these days.
Wow Matt....what a way to start out.....spectacular
I've never seen the sky like that in your picture.....that would be enough to keep me up all night.....watching the Northern lights ' dance ' around the night sky....ever changing colour and pattens..... what a privilege.
I had a look at the Moon through a 76mm Tasco Table Top Catadioptic using .965 H Eyepieces...and I was ' blown away ' that I could see the craters on the Moon..... ...that's how it all started for me.
It was later on that I discovered that there was bigger and better gear available and views were way ahead of the little Tasco 76.
For me, it was Dad taking me to the Auroral Valley Tracking Station when I was 5. I was lucky enough that he was working on the NASA programme at the time but even more exciting was being able to manually move the dish out there.
I'll never forget Dad showing me the alt and azi readings on this huuuuge piece of metal with flashing lights and oscilloscope signals flaring out at me while I make the numbers match those that he had written down on some paper.
Then there was the punch-card computers and I remember the enterprising guys at the station programming 'The Enterprise vs. Kingons' into one of the oscilloscopes there. You had one green blip moving near another green blip, when they got close enough you turn the frequency pot manually and if the other green blip disappeared you successfully had launched a photon torpedo and destroyed the enemy!
Dad brought home all sorts from that station, mission patches, models, tales and anecdotes.
Got my first scope (a Tasco!) at about 8 and never looked back.
That would have 'hooked' anyone Simon. I am officially jealous now !!!
Orroral and Honeysuckle were still running when I first visited but I didn't have a VIP Pass like you.
I did get to play with the Lunar Laser Ranger in Orroral Valley when we turned up unannounced during a SAR exercise.
For me, I was about 8 or 9 years old. I remember seeing Vega for the first time during the long Summer evenings and wondered what it was. I got a 50mm toy junk scope when I was eleven and it got me hooked. A pair of 10x50 binoculars the year after set me up for the next 15 years. I was in my late twenties before I decided to buy my first real telescope which I still use today.
I discovered a love of fishing when I was very young around the same time. I have never lost interest in either activity.
Last edited by Irish stargazer; 24-12-2013 at 05:53 PM.
That would have 'hooked' anyone Simon. I am officially jealous now !!!
Orroral and Honeysuckle were still running when I first visited but I didn't have a VIP Pass like you.
I did get to play with the Lunar Laser Ranger in Orroral Valley when we turned up unannounced during a SAR exercise.
For me, it was Comet Hale-Bopp and staying up late to watch the northern lights when I was 3 years old living in Canada, which planted that initial seed of interest. Only remained just an area of interest until Comet McNaught back in 2007 and got my first scope, a small Saxon newtonian, soon after.
Ever since, it's been my ambition to pursue a career in astrophysics.
I grew up on a farm where the skies were as black as you can get, due to neighbours being many miles apart. Some 40+ years ago we had only 1 TV channel and it was in B+W. So there was the sky, so full of stars it was hard for a kid with too much time on his hands to ignore.
I bought a four inch newt on a whim and saw Saturn. 13 years, thousands of dollars, six telescopes and two observatories later, I still look at Saturn and am awed.
hmmmm.... deffo my dad back in liverpool when i was 5 or 6 showing me the pole star and i am sure the "frying pan"(?)
him letting me stay up to watch the first moon landing was a highlight for me
then the "race into space" cards collected out of the tetleys tea
this was the late sixties and into the early seventies
then we arrived in perth in 73 and dad bought me my first telescope..... the obligatory 60mm tasco and actually it was the zoom version and when me dad realised that it was not the astronomical one he goT offered....... back it went to kmart ha ha!
happy memories!
will never forget "discovering" saturn one night i literally screamed the neighbourhood down and me dad had to tell me to "calm down" in a typical scouse accent!
pat
I remember a few things that influenced me. I grew up in a small town, in a rural area so I got to see a lot of the sky at night.
I also remember getting some "recent" National Geographic magazines, I think from my grandfather, about the probe that had reached Jupiter and discovered a lot of new moons. (Yeah, that was a while ago now... ). It was fascinating stuff. (side note: at the time, the school science classes were still teaching Jupiter with 4 moons and I threw a spanner into our class with the updated info. :p ).
There was also the whole SF fascination, plus the various rocket launches, etc. And a visit to Parkes Radio Telescope.
But, it wasn't until recently that I got more into it - combination of time, funds, etc. aligned. I should have started earlier!
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,481
In 1978, our school started an astronomy club, of which I was a founding member. The enthusiasm and energy of the sponsoring teacher, the late Viv Lawton, was one major factor that began this 35+ year journey. Viv also ran a mirror grinding and telescope making group in the school. My scope was completed via membership of the ATM club of Qld and mentoring by the late, great telescope maker, Cliff Duncan.
It was the publication of Dennis Di Ciccio's analemma photo published in 1979 really inspired my interest in photographic recording of astronomical phenomena.
Although people continue to shoot these today, the remarkable aspects of this image were that it was the first image of the phenomena and it was shot by multiple exposure onto a single piece of film. Consequently there was no room for error or clouds in this year long project requiring dozens of well exposed images. Modern attempts are assembled from many individual images so any errors can be easily excluded.
Earlier this year, I co-authored a feature article in Sky and Telescope. To my delight, Dennis Di Ciccio was assigned to edit the feature. By way of introduction as we began editing, he kindly told us that he first viewed our results with retired former editor, Roger Sinnott and they were both impressed with our project and described it as a "remarkable accomplishment." Robert Naeye had already told us that the editorial staff were all excited about the article. While the mutual admiration society was up and running I told Dennis how inspirational his image had been to my introduction to astrophotography.
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.that's me .
