1) Dave Tyler 1. I first saw The Orion Nebula through binoculars age 30 2. I first saw Saturn's rings through a 3 inch I got in a swap.age 31 3. Seeing Saturn and Plato through my newly home built ground polished and figured 8.5 inch. I had seen through no one else's at the time. age 32 I suppose the real root of it was, understanding for the first time, at the age of 15, how we got seasons, It remained dormant until 1. , when I was given a small book on what could be seen in Bins, but it was the actual view that lit my flame. --------------------------- 2) John Frake For me it was the availability of an evening class in telescope building! ----------------------------- 3) Kenny Sharp - Ursa Major (age 15-19). I was living in the northeast of Scotland, just outside a large village on a very dark site so had many nights walking home from the pub under an amazingly bright and clear night sky. My clearest memory is being facinated by 'The Plough' which was frequently in front of me as I walked. I've always been fascinated by the night sky but mostly for seeing rather than knowing or understanding. - The Moon (age 29). I bought my first astronomical equipment (cheap bins) on holiday in Cornwall to take a closer look at the moon. - The Internet (age 31). I soon tired of looking at the moon through low-powered bins and didn't really have the knowledge required to look at anything else with them. I used the internet for research into astronomy and my interest became strong enough that I invested in a telescope. From there, I had to learn to use it (astronomy course) and gain experience from others (by joining a society, which I'm now on the committee of). --------------------------------------------------- 4) Martin Andrews 1) Age of 10 hanging out of my bedroom window and witnessing a bright meteor 2) Reading through Patrick Moores 'Astronomy' little book ... same age 3) Spending time on the sunlounger on clear nights trying to navigate my way around the constellations using the star maps in 'Star and Planets' book by Robin Kerrod. 5) Jillian Allen (RAS) for me the interest started in a low key way as a primary school child watching either a full or partial solar eclipse projected via a pin hole card into a bucket of water. Can't remember the year or what the event was, but I wanted to know why it was all happening - and didn't understand it at all! This was increased by a school A Level Physics project on the dynamics of and gravitational effects of the solar system and each planet on the others, and a love of chemistry and spectrometry (still no observing). Not long after this I discovered I was very short sighted, got my first specs and saw all these stars really do sit up there (having never been able to see them before, just pictures, I thought nothing was visible without a telescope!). Since then much time has been wasted/enjoyed staring heavenwards. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) Adrian Jones 1. My first view of the Moon through any kind of optical instrument. This was at age 11, in Scotland, using the most basic refractor available from Charles Frank in Glasgow .... a simple plastic objective lens and eyepiece, mounted in two telescopic cardboard tubes, propped up on a fence! The aberrations must have been awful but I remember to this day my amazement and the thrill it gave me. I dragged all the other members of the family outside to share my 'discovery'. I still have the 'eyepiece'. 2. Discovering and reading - at about age 15 - every book on astronomy I could find in the local public library ... then moving on to the other 4 or 5 nearest libraries! (This led eventually to me choosing Astronomy and Astrophysics for my university degree.) 3. Much more recently, putting a Sony video camera to the eyepiece of my old (and long time unused) telescope and being utterly amazed at the detail visible on Jupiter and Saturn .... far better than anything I had ever achieved years before with film. That reignited my interest and was in effect a new beginning for me. --------------------------------------------------------- 7) Stan A 1. Aged 8.In fogbound Liverpool during WW2 the German bombers could see the shiny railways when the moon was Full. I was fascinated by its periodicity in producing death and destruction. 2. Aged 18.National Service. With good maths background I excelled in Map reading and realised that at night few others knew how to travel and self study astronomy was encouraged by the Army. Fascinated by the Pleiades in Bins. 3.Aged 30. Extensive on the job travel to dark sky places renewed my awareness of meteor showers and Binocular objects. First telescope bought at age 40 . Negative instances of earning a living and working in London with long travel times. 8) Jim House Hard to remember when I first became interested, but I'll give it a go.... One of the early motivators was the Apollo program Then probably the NASA interplanetary missions of the 70's - Viking and Voyager The astrophysics part of my Geophiz degree 9) Pete Lynch my history was that I first became interested in astronomy at around age 10, left it for a while and came back over 30 years later! my main influences (esp. about picking up on it again) must be 1.) GOTO scopes - I simply don't have enough leisure time (nor the inclination) to learn to star-hop. My main interest is "seeing stuff" rather than the satisfaction others obviously get from "the hunt" 2.) CCD cameras. My interest is deep sky. You have to acknowledge that most DS. objects viewed through the eyepiece are "faint fuzzies" with a very low quality of details. This is especially true for the overwhelming majority of individuals who live in an urban environment. CCDs allow me to produce a much better visual effect that I can show to those with no astronomical bent. They can at least appreciate why I get enthused - even if they don't share it. 3.) My third influence has been over-stated expectations. This is probably what made me lose interest in the first place - the idea that is promoted by telescope manufacturers (and to some extent astronomy books & magazines) that you can expect Hubble class views from a 3-inch shop-bought scope with a plastic lens. It's a shame that the only widely available UK astro publication (Astronomy Now) has almost no content about people using their telescopes in the UK to see stuff. They have a lot of content about space, cosmology and the like, but to my knowledge don't publish articles about what you can expect to actually see from a city centre with a 4" scope. If I was a raw beginner today I would feel conned by this lack of honest expectations. 10) Simon Street RAS Try my these 3 key moments. 1. Music teacher (I was 7 years old) gave a school assembly talk about how he saw Mars, while he was out walking one night, so I hit the local libruary and achieved it for myself with the naked eye. 2. I asked for a pair of 8x30 binoculars for my eleventh birthday, for astronomy, I built a tripod out of my mums old rotary washing line, saw the Galilaen satellites, the moon, M42, M13. Later employered 7x50 and 16x50 to see M81, M82 all in darkest Herefordshire. 3. 26 years old I purchased my first telescope after 15 years of binoculars. A 10" Dobsonian, M13 Wow, Jupiter Wow, M57 Wow. Sharing with my Wife, kids and extended family, WOW. Arizona, Algeria what skies, WOW Hope this is of some help. If only to inform beginners that binoculars kept me going and fully entertained with 15 years of Astronomy. -------------------------------------------------- 11) Linda Priest Like almost everyone, I got interested when very young! 1] Age 7 - With less light pollution back in the 50's. walking the dog on frosty winter evenings meant even suburban skies showed me the glory of Orion, Sirius & the Pleiades. 2] Age 8 - A lucky find in the local newsagent was a charming astronomy book for beginners - "The Starry Heavens" by Ellison Hawks. It's the only book from my childhood I still own. 3] Age 10 - A camping holiday in Devon under really dark summer skies at last showed me the Milky Way - it was wonderful!