I started out in astronomy in 1957 when a substitute Physics instructor showed our class a telescope mirror and told us that we could buy mirror making kits from Edmunds Scientific to make our own telescope mirrors. After buying a kit for a 4 1/4 inch mirror and reading Scientific American's "Amateur Telescope Making, Books One & Two", I spent the whole summer grinding, polishing, figuring (to f 8), and silvering the mirror, plus building a cardboard tube, wood tripod, and water pipe right ascension head for a total cost of aroud $20. It worked sop well that durong the next summer I made an 8" f 8 telescope with a a polar axis from a an old bicycle fork. Trying to get properly exposed prints of the photos taken through the eyepiece (a brass lens from a WWII surplus tank) let me learning how to make my own prints ... and hence to Amateur Photography.