Lovejoy was amazing, When I finally located it using my Bins I was in awe.
When it got slightly brighter I had to get my Telescope on it and and Image it, It is no where near as good as some of the others I have seen.
I do hope I will see Halley's Comet also, but I am doubtful. At least I can educate how important and rare it is to my children In hope they will see it when I am sadly gone.

Apollo 11 launch happened around my birthday as a small child, and it was broadcast live all over the world. I was captivated, I wanted to go. I sat up all night watching the launch, and then a few days later all night (against parents wishes, but they were resigned to giving in.) watching the lander's descent to the Moon and the first tentative steps of Neil Armstrong on the surface. I watched every single broadcast by the scientists and experts explaining everything that was going on. It had a big influence on me, and generated a love of all things Sci-Fi, and a dream of being an Astronaut when I grew up, something that my careers teachers at school viewed with some consternation.

I did science based subjects at O Level at a time when I was supposed to be picking Cookery and Dressmaking and other similarly boring subjects. Our Physics teacher, Mr Glover, (thank you, wherever you are) encouraged my non conformity and answered endless teenage questions patiently. I was sure we would have a Moonbase by now, and that I might get to go in my lifetime. Never happened and the disappointment was crushing. LM1 is a small way to realise the dream

I think my fascination started when my parents set up a small telescope and showed me a comet (no idea which) and the moon when I was a child, I hardly remember it but it's one of my earliest memories so it must have made an impression!

Planes and airshows have featured heavily in my life. I became obsessed with flight and I still am!

Then during GCSE and A-Level I was guided by several excellent teachers to try and realise my dream of becoming an aeronautical engineer and then when I discovered that the high end maths baffled me somewhat, my Mum suggested I try geology, which had just been offered as an A-Level. I got into geology on a whim expecting to drop it within the year and ended up loving it, due in no small part to the enthusiasm of my teacher.

My Dad told me about watching the Apollo 11 landing, much the same way you did Stavy, and I was captivated. You can watch the footage now but you can't look up at the Moon and say, 'Wow, there are people up there.'.

Now I'm trying to combine the two things I enjoy most, spaceflight and geology, and supporting LM-1 seems like a natural thing to do!

I was just going to start a thread along these lines after a comment from Abi and James in the introduction thread but I have been beaten to it

I didn't have a good experience with learning at school and left with below average grades. Years later I decided to learn Maths at the Open University and the learning bug bit me. After maths I did the OU course in Planets as I have always been fascinated with the Moon and Mars. This then lead on to astronomy and geology courses and I guess years later to here and the Lunar Mission.

I wonder, if I went to a better school then this path I have taken with education may never have happened!

Hi Martin, thanks for sharing your experience. It seems to me that a good school grade is not necessarily an indicator of understanding and potential.

Most of the learning we do occurs outside of any formal educational context - we learn to be sociable, we learn to work with others, we learn to value and respect those around us. These qualities and more are not easily examined if at all, and yet it's clear you've honed your skills. Studying maths, astronomy and geology at the Open University was the hook for you, but it was your innate curiosity (yet another quality that's difficult to examine) that brought you here and which it seems will remain a driving force. Your post led me to ponder on the nature of curiosity and how good educating requires as much care and development of those things that cannot be examined, as for those things that can.

Interesting Mike.... I may well beat you to the topic like I did with Martin's.
I'm looking forward to the thread.