For all of us interested in astronomy, it would be fun to find out how we got here. For me, I was a very youngster during the Apollo missions. Don’t remember the first landing, but the last couple I do. Got a small scope from my uncle in 1973, pointed it at the moon, and as a 7 year old I was blown away. Even with all the moon and astronaut posters I had on my bedroom wall, it was awesome to see it for myself through a scope. That’s how my astronomy journey started. How did it start for you? Thanks!
8 Likes
I was hooked after a friend of mine bought an 8 inch Meade Schmidt Cassigrain and brought it over to set up in my backyard . We looked at Saturn and I couldn’t even believe it was real . A few years later I bought my first scope and three weeks after that I bought my second scope .
5 Likes
The thing that got me interested was John Glenn’s flight. After all that I followed everything from Gemini through Apollo. I got my first telescope when I was 16, by saving money from summer jobs. By then I was hooked. I got a BS in astronomy and a PhD in physics, and retired from NASA, where I worked with the Pioneer and Voyager programs. Now I keep busy with three telescopes.
7 Likes
I really don’t know of one thing. I’ve always liked looking at the stars. they make me think about the vastness of the universe. psalm 19:1 really resonates when I look up
7 Likes
i personally have been interested since i was a child. my dad had this ipad with a constellation app, and i’d spend as long as i could outside picking out the constellations and stars. now, i’m majoring in astrophysics and i’m getting my first telescope quite soon! so excited to continue my space-loving journey in life, and hopefully in my career.
6 Likes
Good luck with that! I also majored in astrophysics, but I let my undergrad advisor talk me into getting my PhD in physics instead. It turned out to be just as good.
6 Likes
For me it was mostly youtube. My parents felt I liked astronomy even before I fully realised it myself and got me a telescope for my 13th bday after which I fell down the delicious rabbit hole of googling phy concepts and then googling something I dint understand in that page
Planning for any job in physics research😁
4 Likes
Hello my name is Julio Herrera. As kids, my brother and I would lie on the rooftop, staring at the night sky. One evening, during a power outage, the stars seemed brighter than ever. Our grandfather pointed to Orion’s Belt and told us stories of constellations. Intrigued, we borrowed a dusty telescope from the attic. The first time we saw Jupiter’s moons, we were hooked. We spent nights tracking planets, watching meteor showers, and reading about the cosmos. What began as simple curiosity turned into a lifelong passion for astronomy, reminding us that the universe is vast, mysterious, and always waiting to be explored.
6 Likes
Started getting REAL interested after I heard about 2024 YR4 and all the hype and morbid sensationalism around it. Not the best reason but here I am lol
5 Likes
Any reason is a good one!
6 Likes
Yeah, if you are interested now, its the best reason! 
5 Likes
My dad bought me these books when I was, I guess 5 years old. And those two books in the upper right made my interest at first.
My dad gave me different choices then, (he also bought me story books and other types of books. I chose what I liked!
Love my dad !!! 
3 Likes
He was like a ghost to me!
Its my wifes fault. She said she wanted to see Saturn. A 10 inch and 16 inch dob, a 10 inch SCT and a frac later, she has definitely seen Saturn.
6 Likes
When I was probably five or six, our dad took the family outside and we laid on blankets on the grass to watch the Perseids peak. It was cool to see little “shooting stars” and contemplate the meaning of life. Suddenly the biggest meteorite I’ve ever seen streaked across the sky, leaving a purple trail for a few seconds afterward. It was a big deal to me, and I wrote my ‘personal narrative’ story about it that year. Ever since, stargazing in the backyard has been one of my favorite summer activities and I hope to study astrophysics in the near future.
4 Likes
That’s exactly what we do! I feel it too! 
We start by looking at the stars, then discuss the beginning of everything – creatures, humans, life itself – and then, ‘Who are we? What does it all mean?’ We spend hours! Then, I get this strange and nice feeling, like warmth inside me, but cold outside. It’s unexplainable!
5 Likes
Yep, exactly. Makes me think of Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot”.
5 Likes
This is the fascinating topic. Let me begin with my childhood. Those days I enjoyed watching space shows especially on National geographic and read the astronomy and astrophysics papers since I was unaware of English it was a difficult time but gradually, I practiced This language and became fluent.
Here begins ignition of my true space interest.
Between 2006-2012 (I don’t remember), I went my uncle’s village with my family, on a Marriage ceremony invitation. I was an introvert, obviously, I was away from the crowd. In one night, all relatives were talking with each other, and I was looking in the sky since I loved to watch those stars.
In that night, something quite unbelievable happened. A star started to orbit; there was no central light source. It might have completed just 12-15 rounds; the star turned into a glowing fluid like ribbons which were spreading in the local sky after every round. The Star shined enormously and revealed colorful patterns and fogs; all those colorful things sucked into that central point in about 4-10 seconds. Then it disappeared in the common background.
This moment was the event of my life, I have dedicated to find this stuff in various Astronomy catalogs and journals, but nobody ever recorded such a phenomenon. I further confirmed, it was not atmospheric effect, satellite, Air vehicle or anything manmade or earthly event.
I was so lucky to see with my own eyes, I hope that was first and last moment to see a star being eaten by a black hole or stellar remnant. I am more surprised that nobody ever recorded such a beautiful naked eye event, even though scientists had Hubble Telescope, Chandra and many other advanced instruments.
If anyone know about this event, please look for that, the main problem is I hadn’t watch, camera like tools, If I knew about this event I would record, I’d definitely come in Astronomy journals.
3 Likes
I was doing a lot of Photography. And I gravitated towards Macro Photography and one night I was staring at the Moon, then decided to try and find the Great Orion Nebula. Took me two nights. 
But I found it in my Spotting scope and got hooked.
I thought about why I wanted to go into Astrophotography. Decided the pictures on the web were nice, but they weren’t my pictures.
So I began studying how to do my Astrophotography, 5 months later I clicked the purchase button on my final list of equipment.
13 years later here I am.
I do my AP from my backyard.
1 Like