I have been an avid observer since the age of 9. I decided to pursue astronomy as a hobby in 1965 after being fascinated by the unaided eye views of the Milky Way and Comet Ikeya-Seki from my downtown apartment in Salvador, Brazil. My father used to show me the constellations and I would always borrow his 8x30 binoculars to "check them out." Later on I "upgraded" to 7x50 binoculars that were not being used by an aunt. But only after getting a 60mm refractor could I observe most of the Messier objects with the help of monthly charts published locally in Ciencia Ilustrada. I was always motivated by my father, someone who was born under the stars in the mountains of the Levant and until the age of 14 had never had electricity in his house to spoil his admiration of the heavens.
Old romantic days... new 21st Century ways, don't take my dark skies away...