Probably my first contact with astronomy would be around 1945, reading an encyclopaedia of my father's which was probably published about 1925
The stunning news in astronomy at that time was that the universe was larger than our Milky Way Galaxy, as extra-galactic nebulae had just been discovered
Since then, my interests have travelled in the reverse direction to the usual ones; I now regard the general universe as interesting wallpaper, as nearly all the action which affects our daily lives happens in the solar system

Sadly, John passed away in 2007. He will be missed by all of us at MAS