Beginnings

Just thought as I had been here a while I would make use of the blog option. Please be kind as this is my first attempt at any kind of blogging so if it's boring/repetitive/silly/a bit mad, try to forgive.

I have already mentioned some of the stuff I intend to write here in one or two of my posts but I thought it better to "blog it" rather than fill up the forums.

Well where did it start? My dad was always interested in science and fostered in me and my 2 brothers (I am the youngest) a desire to learn about many things, natural history and astronomy among them. I have very happy memories of cold, crisp nights when he would take us into the garden of the house where we grew up and point out some of the constellations. He had, what he always called, a "deck telescope", a big (perhaps 6" objective) heavy, brass and leather thing on a large wooden tripod. I assume it was made for terrestrial viewing as the image was upright and to focus you turned a knurled brass wheel that moved a draw tube in and out.

He would set it up on the lawn and I can hear him now, pointing out where The Great Bear, Polaris, Orion (I never forgot that belt), Gemini and The Pleiades were. After a while, little cold fingers and toes would drive us back inside the warm house to check on what we had seen in his old star map books. Then perhaps cocoa and a biscuit before bed and I would open my bedroom curtains just to check if those magical objects were still there.

As the years went by my interests turned more to natural history and birdwatching became my main hobby. I never forgot the stars though and was always pleased to see Orion and give him a nod and a wink for old times sake. My dad passed away in 1997 and I never did get to do any real stargazing with him again. He would be absolutely thrilled that I have come back to something he was so passionate about. It was Brian Cox and his marvellous Wonders of the Solar System that sparked it off again for me.

I am not a particularly spiritual person, I don't believe in ghosts or an afterlife, but somehow I feel when I look up now my dad is there with me. Of course he is, in my heart and in my memories, once more showing me the delights of the night sky. I am experiencing all over again that childlike wonder I had with my dear old dad and his deck telescope.

Thanks dad.