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She is an astronomer (well sort of)…..
I was fascinated by space when I was a child. Back then the space race was on and you couldn’t even buy an ice lolly that didn’t look like a spaceship. Dad was fascinated and carried me with him.
I had a telescope as a child and one night, bored, I focused my telescope on what I imagined was a star only to have the image resolve into the crescent shape of Venus. I think from that moment I was hooked.
The moon landings were an amazing thing to me as a child and I don’t think the wonder of those years has ever really left me.
Later, in my 20s a friend bought me a halfway decent telescope and I started to learn in earnest but my career in the IT industry (though it was called DP back then) plus marriage and children meant I had no time to indulge my hobby.
Recently with time on my hands I decided to get back into my old hobby and was amazed at what was available in the world of astronomy. I always wanted a decent telescope but it was always out of my reach back in the 1970s a good scope would have cost as much as a family car. Nowadays telescopes with incredible features are available at very reasonable prices and I at last have the sort of telescope I always dreamed about.
I’m not a terribly scientific observer I just love to see the wonders of the universe. I think of it as a way of communing with the infinite rather than a scientific puzzle.
“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit”