Hi all,
here is a question for everyone, when did your interest in amateur astronomy first begin or what was that single point in time when you decided that this is so interesting I'm hooked.
For me it all started when I was nine, we were all sitting on the verandah one summer evening (late sixties no computers and no telly) and the binoculars were on the table as mum was a keen bird watcher, so I picked them up and pointed them to the sky and it was like being hit by a truck another world just opened up in front of me. From memory it was about two weeks later dad and I went to the local camera store and I got my first telescope, a Tasco 2" Refractor and Nortons Star Atlas 1950 epoch. I'm not sure what happened to the scope but I still have the atlas.
I'm not sure when it started, but I always had an interest in "space and stuff" as a kid. Used to use the old 40mm refractor on tabletop tripod to look at the moon and birds.
We had a great dark country sky where I grew up as a kid.. how I wish I was there now! Although there was a lot of trees too.
I lost interest for a while, but got into it again about 3 years ago. I've had my scope for about 2 years now.
Actually, my story is remarkably similar to IceMan! My first scope was a 40mm refractor on a table top mount. It wasn't good enough to see much but a few years later I got a Tasco 60mm for Christmas, also not good enough to see much. I would have been about 10 at the time (1968) and probably got more interested with the Moon landings. I was interested in all the "flybys" but didn't really come back to the hobby until about 3 years ago when I bought a couple of astronomy magazines and realised the telescopes were not as expensive as I had thought. I remember drooling over a 102mm Tasco with all the gizmos in the catalogue but the price was "astronomical", many hundreds of dollars as I recall (I still wish I had the old catalogue).
i stared at about 7yo when my father bought me a 50mm refractor, which i manly looked at the moon with. i lost interest till i was about 23yo when i took my gf to the sydney observatory (thought it would be interesting) and that rekindled my interest but then i forgot about it entirely as my nights were filled with live bands and drinking... regained interest about 3 years ago and decided to start small (60mm refractor) to see if it was just a passing fad and bought my 8" dob soon after.
I've always had an interest really - but last year saw a news article that jupiter was going to be visible in the daytime next to the moon - it blew me away (I didn't know you could even see Jupiter at night from earth!).... Started off with some old binos I had laying around - then discovered you could see *galaxies* from earth with amateur equipment.... picked up the 8" Dob, now the refractor for imaging....
About 14 years ago, I was very ill having had 2 heart attacks and a flight on the Royal Flying Doctor Service, so I said to the wife "If I'm soon going to be up there in the stars, I might as well have a good look at them first" Got a loan from the bank and hey presto got a lovely 8" SCT which I still use.
It started for me when I was about 6 years old. We had a set of encyclopedias and one of the volumes was an atlas. In the back of the atlas was some stuff about the solar system, thats what stared it for me back in 1976. In the very late 70's my old man bought me a toy telescope, a 30x40mm with a table top tripod (seems popular) with that I saw the moon but not much else. In 1980 I got my first real telescope, a 60mm Tasco with a zoom eyepiece (x15 to x60) but no finder and right side up view. Even though that scope was a piece of crap I got my first views of Jupiter, Saturn (which blew me away) the Orion Nebula and the double star Alpha Centauri.
im the same as mick.
i read the encylpedia, and found the space sectionn the most interestiing. no idea why! loved the pics i think! have loved it since about 4 yrs old. i actually remember in preeschool crying because i didnt get the bag slot with the stars on it. so yeah probably about 4 or so years old! (i got the crown instead! lol)
I can't remember when my interest started as it's pretty well always been there.
Growing up in the far western suburbs (well, they were back then) of Sydney when there was NO light pollution at all, I can vividly remember looking up each night and seeing the bright Milky Way and the 2 fuzzy clouds that never blew away (SMC & LMC) back in the 60's. Then a few years later (still a kid) I witnessed a meteor shower that was what you would expect a meteor shower to look like, 2 or 3 every second for hours!!! The whole neighbouhood was sitting out in the street watching it.
Then we were confronted with the illustration of the Solar System inside the front cover of our school atlas every day we opened it, then watching Neil Armstong and Buzz Aldrin Landing & walking on the Moon (I remember feeling sorry for Collins).
Always wanting to see into space and one day go there! Unfortunately I had no access to a telescope, not even binoculars, but I studied that night sky every chance I got.
I watched a Total Solar Eclipse as a teenager, and I have seen a few Lunar eclipses.
Without ever losing interest, it wasn't until 1985 as a 28 y.o. that I got to see through a telescope for the very first time, and I built that telescope myself from parts ordered from Melbourne. It was a 114mm reflector. I was blown away!!!! 28 years of waiting!!!
20 years later I bought a 12" dob (2005). The rest you know.
I am so pleased that my kids enjoy it, and my boys are as hooked as I was at their age!
And after a lifetime of stargazing, I still don't know many constellations!!! I just look through the scope and find stuff.
i allways loved astronomy as long as i can remember since i was young, i had allways loved science as a young boy, allthough highschool seemed to have missguided me to nowhere...
it was untill the age of 20 when i got my first proper scope and as i was very happy as i had allways wanted one when i was younger,
i am 21 now and i am hooked and beggening to drive deep into astrophotography. i feel as if this hobby has been a great catalyst for me. and i am now starting to go somewhere with my life, rather then nowhere.
I've always been interested in general space-related fields. About 10 years ago I read a book on the development of the Hale reflector at Mt Palomar in California which did its utmost to blow me away. The effort, trouble and political opposition that Hale went through, the development of the cooling process at Corning for the 200-inch honeycomb borosilicate glass mirror blanks (both of them) and how they got it all up the mountain was a fantastic story. Out of it we also got pyrex.
I was living in New York at the time with Jenny, and we both decided to go to Corning to see the mirror. It really boggles the imagination.
After our stint in New York we moved to Orange County in California - so the inevitable happened. We took a camping trip up Mount Palomar in the dead of winter and froze our buns off. That didn't matter because we saw the magic machine and even had a look at the Cassegrain focus. We met Jim Gunn's wife who runs the shop there & who is also an astronomer - Dr. Jill Knapp. Jim invented the idea of using a CCD-based camera for a digital sky survey while he was working for CalTech at Palomar. Legendary stuff. I still can't get enough of it.
What happened to us? We've not been back to the moon, we don't do outrageous things like building monster telescopes that we have to drag up mountains with horses any more...... pity.
Anyway - I now have my own primary mirror to stare out to space with. I'm a very happy chappy
I have alwasy been the curious type trying to work out how things work.
Two TV shows i watched changed my life when i was very young, they were back to back on Sunday mornings. In India we owned a BW tv and we got one station Doordarshan and most programing was during the weekend. This was only 30 years ago. The two shows were UFO (unidetified flying objects) and Star Trek the orginal series. Both these shows instilled in me a firm faith that there was much more in the world than just my life. From that time to know i have had much intrest in Science, Engineering and Astronomy.
But it was not until about one and half years ago that i bought my first telescope. And that was after i was relocated at work with a team of guys that contained some amature astonomers. Both greatly encouraged me to buy a telescope and I am forever greatfull to them for that. One of them sold me his unused 10x50 Binos and said start with these. Best advise i ever got. Once i looked at the Moon and the Pleiads i was hooked for more.
Omaroo, at the Macquarie Open nigh lecture Josh Hawthorne mentioned the construction of Large Telescopes, apparently the French are building a 100m one over the next 10 years or was it to start in the next 10 years cant recall.
Great stuff Omaroo, I've always regarded Mt Palomar as the Mecca of the classic big scopes, I hope one day I'll be lucky enough to get there and see it. I was lucky enough to spend an evening at Siding Springs with astronomers on the main scope. I was studying geology at Uni and we were there on a field trip, something I will never forget.
I always wanted to be an astronomer but my maths was never that good, that why I did geology, less formulas to remember LOL.
When I was about 10 asked Dad questions about the planets mainly, and it grew from there. When I was 13 saw a advert in the Sunday Mail from Astro-Optical Supplies (1970). Many letters to a fro before I decided to buy a kit 8" Newtonian=$160.00. Made my first mount out of 3/4" water pipe.
Always been in the country, so skies are very dark. Here I am 49 and still enjoying it.
I was probably about 10 yo..went on a school camp up to Anglesea..our teacher was very versed in the constellations..I lost interest for a while..(29 years!)..until I borrowed the local Primary School's 70mm refractor...about 7 years ago...been fascinated ever since!!
when I was about 12 I was out in the paddock with my mum at about 3 in the morning, waiting for the birth of a new foal. At this age I had an incredibly short attention spand, and as soon as I got bored of looking at the new baby horse, I turned my attention to the sky. It was a beautifully clear, warm summer night and after that, I spent every night out under the stars as I probably always will.
Me; late 70's when shows like Star trek, Space: 1999, Dr Who and Blakes' 7 were abundant, I showed an interest and Mum started to buy me Lego that had space themes. I was building big a** spaceships and never looked back. Then Skylab crashed in 1979 which peaked my interest, just before we left OZ ( back to The Netherlands). Then Mum bought me a small scope ( 50mm x 600mm refrator) and I was hooked. Even in snow I would set up on the 4 story high balcony of our flat and gaze at Orion, Saturn, Jupiter etc.
Now 30 odd years later I'm still building Lego ( I now have the Millenium Falcon, AT-AT(moterised), Imperial Star Destroyer- massive 3100+ pieces length ~1m- , v-19 Torrent and waiting in anticipation... a Lambda Class Imperial Shuttle due to be delivered in November....)
GEEK! yep......
Sorry for the diversion,
A few years ago my Step Mum took me on a tour to the Observatory at Bickley, which ignited my already deep seeded interest........ now I have what you see in my Sig......................
Thanks Ric and Molly!
Bartman
a lovely 8" SCT which I still use.
28 years of waiting!!!
mee tooooo....
....)
