I was about 7 years old, and my school teacher had shown star maps to the class earlier (beautiful Prussian blue pages with dots and lines of yellow and red). That evening, I went outside, into my parent’s back garden to try and identify some stars. Suddenly – a great orange flaming lump shot across the sky from right to left, and disappeared behind the horizon. I remember I was scared and breathless – and ran back indoors to tell everyone what happened, gabbling and stuttering with excitement. This fireball started me off – looking at night’s skies, learning constellations, and buying telescopes.