Astronomy was the first of my lasting loves. It overtook me during the total eclipse of 1925. I was staggered by the "diamond ring" effect, caused by the last bit of the sun's face blazing between mountain peaks on the moon's edge. Then the total eclipse began. The stars came out, and I was thrilled.

Like many, I read books, learned about a few stars, and bought a dollar telescope which did not solve the mystery of life on Mars. Later I saved ten dollars and bought a do-it-yourself telescope kit. The theory was simple. You ground one disc of glass over another with finer and finer polishes until you ended up with a shiny concave mirror. You and a thousand other dreamers usually ended up with two glass discs which occupied a place of honor in your closet until your mother threw them out the day after you went to college. Decades later I bought a lovely three-inch telescope in London.

Q. Underline a sentence which proves clearly that the author's interest is astronomy was not a passing fancy.