Although I have been a radio astronomer all my working life I have also greatly enjoyed observing the heavens. At the age of 12, I first observed the craters on the Moon and the moons of Jupiter with a simple telescope made from cardboard tubes and lenses given to me by my optician. As I write, I have my father’s thin, red bound, copy of Fred Hoyle’s book The Nature of the Universe on the desk beside me. It was this book that inspired me to become an astronomer.

I was able to study a little astronomy as an undergraduate at Oxford University and was also in the ‘signals’ section of the University Officers’ Training Corps. As I was revising for my finals I spotted an advertisement for a new course in radio astronomy at the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Being interested in both astronomy and radios this seemed a good idea and I began to study there in 1965, initially studying the surface of the Moon by radar.