Introductions: How did you become interested in astronomy?

[brucesdad13]

I'm new to astronomy at 37-years old. I had some dabblings in high school but then a long time without much hands-on. I'm excited to join the forums and see what everyone is posting and learn. I caught the astrophotography bug in February and have been hooked ever since. I'm fortunate to have a local astronomy society near my house and am enjoying the coffee and banter about anything from health to Pluto.

[brucesdad13]

First light at The Field
http://aldrich.club
Copyright: Charles K Stevenson
http://astro.charleskelleystevenson.com ... 490_sm.jpg

Here's a photo of me at the site our club leases from the Boy Scouts. It was my first time running off the car for astrophotography and ran into all sorts of issues with power. Oh well. Still had fun.

[geckzilla]

Hi there. Welcome to the forum. I presume your name is Charles?

[brucesdad13]

You can call me Charlie

[Bruce Kamiat]

I first became interested after reading two books: "Cycles of Fire," by Hartmann and Miller, and "Galaxies," by Timothy Ferris.

[Pianosorplanets]

Hail and well met, Ya'al!

I've been lurking APOD for a long time and finally decided (with New Horizons to talk about) that it was time I registered properly. I hope to get to know many of you and exchange ideas and learn new things about astronomy and astrophysics. I'm just a guy who got his B.S. in Music nearly 30 years ago but Astronomy has always been a passion since I was a child (long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away!)

Thanks for providing the APOD for us all these years. I've been lurking it a long time and am amazed at its staying power. Not much on the net lasts like APOD has done. I sense that I've stumbled across a place with a lot of great people with a lot of great ideas and common interests.

I'm going by the simple name of PianosorPlanets since it seems to touch on two of many of my favorite interests. The rest of me, we'll learn as we go.

[owlice]

Welcome to Asterisk, Pianosorplanets! Piano, hmmm? What are you currently playing or working on?

[lbeckham]

I was 8 or 7 in 1959 and my memories are sooo volatile for that era, but I read a children's book on the moon. Something like, "The Little Golden Book of the Moon" but that's not it. I learn that days are two weeks and up to 250 degrees F and the night also two weeks and -250 F. Something like that. And there is probably thick layers of dust on the Moon. And 1/6 gee.

Anyway, it was hard reading and above my grade level. I decided I must improve my reading and learn all that I can about all the planets. Planetary Astronomy is my First Love.

[dllamas]

I´m Daniel Llamas, I have 40 years old.

Astronomy always like to me, but I begun to do astronomy landscapes (with a standard DSLR and lens) 3 years ago.

I´m, know, very very interested in Astronomy.

[chadwalber]

I was born and raised in Wisconsin, and went to grad school at MTU. As such, low light pollution and good darks skies have always kept my interest near to astronomy. I currently work as a research and development engineer in WNY, and have picked astronomy back up as a hobby.

All of my stuff will be posted up on my Photoblog: http://dark.chadwalber.com
I also am running a small engineering blog here: http://chalk.chadwalber.com

[GoJoe]

I grew up in the 60s and watched all of the rocket launches on TV. John Glenn was my childhood hero. I was interested in anything that had to do with space, including sci-fi. I am still fascinated by space and most recently the photos of Pluto. Who could have guessed that it would have such a varied and interesting surface.

GoJoe

[neufer]

---

I was 8 or 7 in 1959 and my memories are sooo volatile for that era, but I read a children's book on the moon. Something like, "The Little Golden Book of the Moon" but that's not it.

I learn that days are two weeks and up to 250 degrees F and the night also two weeks and -250 F. Something like that. And there is probably thick layers of dust on the Moon. And 1/6 gee.

Time for bed, Little Tex.
Rio Rosie, goodnight.
Jump in your bunkbeds
And close your eyes tight.

[bob]

How can I subscribe to this web site so that I can get a daily photo? My address is: racquetking@icloud.com Bob Beck

[bystander]

How can I subscribe to this web site so that I can get a daily photo? My address is: racquetking@icloud.com Bob Beck

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[owlice]

Also:

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[ChristianGP]

Hi I am Christian, I'm from Guadalajara(Spain), and I love the astrophotography .

[owlice]

ChristianGP, welcome to Asterisk!

[Tab.scribner]

I am Grady, 60 years old and live on White Sands, New Mexico.

I am your niece and I've been looking for you. Keren's eldest.
Tablangis@gmail.com

[Deee92]

Great stories here!

I can't recall when it was that I realised I felt strongly about astronomy. It might've been when I was in school, third grade or earlier. I also don't recall when it became a habit to go out and look for a familiar star or two every night, in the midst of all the haze.
I vaguely remember how I once watched some documentary on TV, and felt overwhelmed by what they said about stars (though I don't think I understood much at that point, maybe the illustrations amazed me). At school, in introductory science classes, when they introduced us to the Moon, the Sun, and the planets, it felt like I found long-lost friends. Later, when I grew up, I learned that there were other "island universes", the galaxies, as they were called. It felt like magic. It still does.

Sadly (and this has been my deepest regret), Math doesn't come very naturally to me, even though I took it for three years in college, in addition to Physics and other subjects, so I unfortunately don't have the pleasure of doing what I absolutely love for a living, but nevertheless, I try to learn all I can by watching documentaries, reading books and Wikipedia articles, following APOD, studying the night sky (Google Sky Map helps), and trying to figure things out on my own.

Though, where I live, the sky is barely any good for stargazing on most nights, I plan to buy a nice pair of binoculars (for starters) soon and say hello to my old friends who dwell in the skies.

I think Ptolemy was speaking for the both of us when he said this:

Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth.

[DGBarrett]

I have always been interested in astronomy.

[geckzilla]

Did you come squirming into this world with a tiny telescope in hand?

[Quasar]

Hi, just joined so this is my first post.
My interest in astronomy was first kindled in 1986 when I was a 10 year old lad, it was, of course the appearance of Halley's comet which was a much hyped event at the time.
I am ashamed to say I did not see it, this was down to several factors, the main one is that I knew nothing about comets, all I knew was from what the media were saying, they kept on showing these amazing photos of what the comet would look like and they kept on mentioning a certain date when it would be visible, I am guessing that was when it was at perihelion or perhaps perigee.

So I was left with the impression that it was going to look like a great big fuzzball with a big tail flowing out behind it that was going to whiz across the sky on that particular date, yeah pretty daft I know!
If I had known what I do now, I'm pretty sure I would have seen it, I still remember standing in the garden with my mum waiting for it to appear, ooops!
Even though I did not see it I was still fascinated and ESA had launched the Giotto spacecraft to fly to Halley's comet and that was really fascinating to follow. It was the first spacecraft to fly close to a comet, so very exciting times to get in astronomy, and I made up for not seeing the comet exactly 10 years after!

It was some time in the mid 90's when I again started to become interested in astronomy, a couple of friends and I used to get an astronomy magazine and would sit out in the back alley with the magazine to help point out things of interest and doing simple astronomy,learning the constellations and the names of the brighter stars, watching the planets, trying to spot the brighter messier objects, stuff like that.
One of my friends had a computer, which had a really cool planetarium program which at the time was pretty awesome and there was a website which showed when satellites would fly over, we spent many an enjoyable evening looking at the stars and tracking satellites, including Mir and the Space shuttles.

In 96 I saw my first comet, and what a comet it was! Hyakutake was a magnificent sight and more than made up for not seeing Halley's comet! little did I know that the best was still to come! although Hyakutake will always be special to me, being my first.
Then in 97 there was that little comet called Hale Bopp! what more can I say about that than WOW! yes I was certainly spoiled with comets those years, I have seen a further 11 since but none can compare to those, I believe I will never see another comet as good as those, but that's what I love about astronomy, you just never know what could happen! My only regret is that I was without a camera then so I have no images of them.

Eventually I saved up and got a telescope, an Orion optics 6" Newtonian, my friend had just got a Meade ETX and we took our scopes out to the New Forest which has fairly light pollution free skies. When I first gazed at Saturn in the eyepiece of my scope, I was blown away!
I'm aware that this is becoming an autobiography rather than a brief introduction so I shall summarize by saying I love astronomy, I've seen so many amazing things and I look forward to seeing many more, clear skies to you all!

[observer]

I'm not entirely sure but I think my interest in astronomy may have started when I was lying in a crib staring at a bunch of strange objects suspended in geostationary orbit above me. Every time I tried to push one of them into a higher orbit it would come right back down at me, so naturally I assumed that I must be the center of the universe. After several years of seeing the data fail to match my predictions however, I was finally forced to concede that my theory was flawed. It was a terrible blow to my ego - one from which I have yet to fully recover. =(

Somewhere around the age of twelve I got myself a Tasco 60mm refractor and spent a lot of time shivering in the cold staring at blurry dots. I soon realized that what I really wanted was a stereo Hubble space telescope. Sadly that was a bit out of my price range, so being an incurable perfectionist I had little choice but to find another hobby.

I've always had an insatiable desire to understand the inner workings of the universe so I decided to focus my attention on electronics in the hopes that it might provide some valuable clues. It turned out to be so much fun that I decided to make a career out of it. A lot of time has passed since then, but my fascination with astronomy never went away, nor did my respect and admiration for those on the cutting edge of discovery.

[shastriarvind88]

hi all,
My name is Arvind Sharma.I am new to this Forum.

[canjam001]

I became interested in astronomy at about 8 years old. As a child and adolescent I used to see the multitude of stars in winter on the northern Canadian prairies so clear, big and close that it seemed one could reach out and touch the Milky Way, and when the Northern Lights (aurora) was very active it appeared that one could hear or feel an ionic hiss in the air. Science fiction was my preferred recreational reading and when I was 14 the Sputnik was headline news followed by the US responses and eventually a few years alter the Apollo missions. After all that I was hooked on astronomy and anything to do with space exploration. Mathematics was never my academic strength so I did not study astrophysics professionally and remained a lifelong amateur aficionado of anything astronomical. As a lifelong pilot I enjoyed similar, beautiful windows on the stars during night flights at high altitude an in the high north and even used them to navigate. My fascination with astrophysical exploration has never left me and now, in my eighth decade, the sense of wonder I felt as a young child remains just as strong. APOD is just as marvellous a window into the magnificence of our universe and I hope it continues to stir that sense of wonder in millions of younger viewers as well as adults. Thanks to those who provide the APOD and those who submit to APOD and offer their thought provoking photos and explanations.