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!
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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 .
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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😁
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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.
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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
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Any reason is a good one!
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Yeah, if you are interested now, its the best reason! 
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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 !!! 
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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.
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