Your First Experience

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

What do you recall as your first introduction/experiece into Amature Astronomy.

I recall when I was 10 I was given a Tasco 60mm Refractor...I spent hours trying to find Saturn because I didn't have any guidance from someone older or experienced. My persistence and perceverance paid off when I found my target...it was a truly memorable experience even now 30 years later.

[Wavytone]

At school... in year 11 some of us found the objective of an 1880 4.5" Clarke refractor in a cupboard the chemistry lab... after asking around we discovered the rest of it in pieces and spent the next year carefully restoring it.

It turns out this was the first telescope Colonel Oddie set up at Mt Stromlo, which he donated to the school in 1926 when he replaced it with the 9" refractor which bore his name at Stromlo, until the observatory was burnt out.

That 4.5" was a wonderful learning experience as it had perfect f/16 optics, and gave beautiful views of the planets. It had a gorgeous phosphor-bronze mount with a weight-driven clockwork drive with a governor, with an 8" diameter worm wheel with 1440 teeth, and setting circles with verniers that read to 15 minutes of arc.

By the time I left in year 12 we had it set up semi permanently on a tripod in a roll-off shed, and it was fine scope for visual use.

I have never seen a scope like it since, and I hope it still exists as it is now the sole piece of history from the original days of Colonel Oddie and the beginning of Mt Stromlo.

I then started to build my own, mostly Newtonians, for which I ground and polished a few mirrors.... but not anymore.

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

My first memory of an astronomical event was the total solar eclipse of 1976. I was six and remember my gradfather telling me why it went dark during the day. That was cool!
I also remember cutting out all the newspaper articles of the space shuttle Columbia that first launched in '81. Later '86 was Halley's Comet - saw that as a fuzzy ball from our front yard.
From there I really got into astronomy!

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

Originally Posted by Matt Wastell

I also remember cutting out all the newspaper articles of the space shuttle Columbia that first launched in '81. Later '86 was Halley's Comet - saw that as a fuzzy ball from our front yard.

As a kid I use to cut out articles on Apollo and Skylab. When I lived in Perth I followed all the reports on Skylabs re-entry and tried to see if I could get a view from Kalamunda hills...alas no. I also remember viewing Halley's Comet through a 16" SCT at an observatory in the Chittering Valley...Golden Grove I think it was called...I was disappointed....the view wasn't great..the comet was heading back out of the solar system.

[Suzy]

Ditto Matt- all three of your moments were mine as well. I was 12 at the time of the solar eclipse. And still to this day have got my newspaper clippings of Columbia and will never part with them. The accident was hard to take aside from loss of life, it was a such a historic shuttle. Though the comet was a no show (as much as we tried with my father's cheap telescope). Could barely see it with the naked eye even.

[pgc hunter]

At school, in grade 2. Apparently at first I thought it was completely lame and stupid...but then I saw all those posters and pics of the solar system and for some reason became quite fascinated by them. Then there was talk of things like the "evening star" etc, and I'd go out and look for it. A year later, I got my first scope, a 60mm Tasco refractor.

[Liz]

Probably Halleys Comet - I was out trying to take photos of the area of the sky it was supposed to be in, of which none worked,
Think I bought my first little Tasco not long after.
We also had a total solar eclipse in Victoria in the 70s which was amazing

[outbr34k (Sarah)]

When I was about 13 my parents took me to the Parkes radio Telescope. Much to their dismay a few weeks later I announced that when I finished highschool I wanted to be an astrophysicist to which they replied "dont be stupid sweetie you're dreadful at mathematics" but then the following birthday they purchased me a tiny little telescope which was about half the quality of a pair of binoculars, but determined I still used it to look at the moon. The most amazing moment of my life I still stand by, was looking at the sombrero galaxy through a 12" Lightbridge. I dont know what it is about it but I think its the most beautiful thing in the universe. (apart from Leonard Nimoy...)

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

When I was a little guy, we had a family friend who was Mongolian, a civil engineer, a true polyglot (7 languages, speak, read and write), and a test pilot of B17 bombers during WWII. A major influence on my life.

He gave me a spanish language encylopedia, which had instructions for building your own 200mm Newtonian, grinding your own mirror AND eyepieces. It also had a great section on astronomy.

My folks insisted that I get good grades in school, and they'd get me a scope- a 50mm Tasco refractor. Cooooolll.

Then my first views of the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and then Saturn! Chased down all these planets from tables in the Sydney Morning Herald. My hard work was paying big time!

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

One thing that I have noticed that is common in this thread is that a lot of peoples first scope was a Tasco small refractor.

These have been a good read with a lot of different experiences...keep them coming. It would be great but probably very remote to hear if anyone ever experience watching live a Satrn V launch from the Apollo era.

[michaellxv (Michael)]

I received my first telescope Dec 75 for my birthday. A small refractor, sadly it's not around any more for me to check the details.

My dad took my brother and I to Mt Gambier for the 76 Eclipse. We setup a projection screen to watch. Not something I will ever forget.

[Jen]

When i was a little kid i was always out looking at the stars and wondering what else was up there
I dont know why it took me so long to buy my first scope (2 years ago) Seeing Saturn for the first time i will never forget it