Aside From Coins, Do You Have Any Other Hobbies?

Wow!! that's amazing. yes....i didn't really look at Ken's picture before i posted my last message but one is on a canceled envelope like that in Ken's photograph but it is of the stamp you said you did not have.

 

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A million light years? With an 8 inch telescope like that you should be able to see the faint glow of some galaxies millions of light years away (but don't expect anything impressive). The best viewing will still be the planets in our solar system, followed by nebulas, star clusters and binary stars within 1000 light years from Earth.

 

You can see galaxies that are 60 million light years away with an 8" scope. I have three scopes - 6" refractor, 10" Dobsonian reflector, and an 18" Dobsonian reflector. Most clear nights I am out there tracking down stuff.

 

Maybe in your neck of the woods. Here in Miami I've settled for just being able to see a faint glow where a few nebulas should be, galaxies are out of the question. I'm just happy to be able to get decent views of the planets, a bunch of clusters, and a few dozen binary systems. That's about the best you'll get here with the reddish sky glow. It don't matter how big a telescope you've got when you are surrounded by 5 million people within a 25 mile area, and atmospheric distortion due to high humidity limits maximum useful magnification on most nights to around 200x anyway. It's a rare night when I can crank it up to 300x and get little distortion.

 

I'm in a Bortle 6 (suburban) zone so the conditions are not optimal. I like to take the scopes out to Bortle 2-3 zones as often as I can.

 

My backyack is in a Bortle 8-9 area. So while it is still possible to do astronomy in those conditions, the views out of a 4 inch telescope located in a dark area are always going to be just as good if not better than my 6 inch telescope located where I am.

 

Ok folks, these are the 3 stamps I've gotten so far. I have around 12 more different types of 1899 stamps from the First American Occupation of Cuba that will be arriving in the mail in the next few days. Some are common, others are very rare.

PS: Notice I said "First American Occupation," because as we all know, no self-respecting Caribbean country would do without at least 2 or 3 American occupations.



1 Centavo Cuba overstamp on 1 Cent US Green (1899)


5 Centavos Cuba overstamp on 5 Cent US Blue (1899)

And here is a better photo of the Cuba 3 Centavos, which was one of several types that replaced the overstamps with official Cuban postage stamps...designed by and printed by Cubans Americans. Well, with America's shinny and powerful fleet anchored off of Havana, I don't think anyone was going to argue over who gets to make the stamp.


3 Centavos stamp (US Occupation 1899-1902).

I'm loving this journey, because as an American I get to experience this part of history, when our nation first flexed it's muscles on the world stage....and as someone born in Cuba I get the added bonus of having stamps commemorating the occupation by my country of my other country...LOL.

 

Me! Me! I'm interested. I love this stuff. Now you are going to make me go start photographing things around here. So i'd like to see more. I went to your profile to see if I could find prior posts like this of yours, but I got lost. How can I see them?

 

Gosh I have so many frames from my father who collected them. But this print is sooo creepy!! Yikes! Nice if you ever have a dungeon or something. Maybe might go nice in a cigar smoking room? lol

 

How DO things get misplaced? I have found the stamps for Sallent except for the envelope with first moon landing stamp. I must continue to look for it. It's around here.

 

You should get those beauties out and post pics. I’d love to collect them but many are quite expensive so I make the Bandai model kits for display when I have the time and energy.

 

Oops double post.

 

Those models are great. I especially like the storm trooper. Take my figures out of the totes ? nope. to many to do that. I once had my whole bedroom walls covered with on card figures, but was afraid they would get damaged I took them all down. I can't find those photos either.

 

The Colony of Cuba
Spanish Empire
Year 1864


1/2 Reales
Unused


1 Real
Unused

 

Lol Johnnie. You laid a gift in my lap with that innocent comment.
It's not technically a "double post" it's most definitely machine doubling! HAhaHA Sorry guys I couldn't refuse.

 

Honestly though,,,,,,, I am SO moved by my fellow collectors that it actually puts a lump in my throat. I'll be thinking, man that guy or girl, just did something so wonderful and thoughtful for that person. Then by the end of the thread or even any other thread, I'll be blown away by someone else's kindness.
I just wanted to thank all of you caring, thoughtful and unselfish people for reaching out to each other. I'm really not ashamed to say my eye leaked a little bit because of your kindnesses.
Thank you so much.

 

I want to thank @Ken Dorney for his wonderful gift. There are so many stamps on so many subjects that it will take days to properly organize everything....

My son and I worked last night exclusively on moon exploration related stamps. Here's what we've done with your moon exploration stamps. We still need to create a label for this section, and will be adding a few additional stamps of our own (so this is far from complete) but I hope you like it...

 

Wow that does suck that the light hinders you guys. I live in the mountains of central Pennsylvania, and boy what I could possibly see with a scope like that. The sky is so clear on a moonless, cloudless night it's almost shocking.

 

It's kind of interesting hobby of collecting cash notes. While I was in Uruguay 50 years ago, I got a one peso note, a five peso note, and I got 10 ten peso notes. I got the ten peso note from a bank just before I was coming home. They must have just gotten from their printer because they are in serial number order. I immediately placed them in a sheet protector and now those currency holders I got. I've got some pictures of them and when I find them, I will post them.

 

Long time daily reader - first post. Started coins in childhood during the 70's and was most interested in US cents - filling whitman holders with what I now consider cull, mostly. Very exciting times then though. World coins only now.

I haven't exhaustively read this amazingly long thread, but I am inspired to make an entry because I suspect no one else has reported collecting . . . Diptera.

For more than ten years, I was a very avid collector of two-winged flies with specialization in specimens of the hugely diverse group; Tachinidae. Tachinids are parasitoids of other arthropods - mostly larval insects - and they almost invariably kill their host. Beautiful animals though - really!

Sweep netted specimens were killed with cyanide, freshly pinned with standard entomological pins, individually labelled with locality, date, habitat, collector information. Standard museum presentation. Did a lot of 'trading' with other Diptera specialists. At present, my huge collection is safely accessioned in a major entomology museum. Tax write-off in an important year.

For the past nine years I have resurrected my childhood passion for collecting 'world coins'. There is no temporal overlap between my former passion for tachinid collection/identification and coin 'buying'.

I have felt conflicted over the relative value (to me or to society) of 'documenting biodiversity' via fly collecting vs. 'hunting' for truly good numismatic material - for the right price - from among the widgets and dreck. On one hand, flies are free! They are spectacularly difficult to identify to species, they are meaningful to local biodiversity studies and, as they are uncommonly collected groups, each collection data point may have real taxonomic meaning. Time spent in nature moving quietly and watchfully, meditative pinning/labelling work, occasional surprise or rare encounter are among the benefits of this type of 'collectible'.

Coins, on the other hand, satisfy a different 'itch'. I have history with them. They are history, fetishized. They cost money to possess, but may in turn be worth money - not just as a tax write-off.

But my coin collection does not feel contributory to me - like natural history collectibles have. Future researchers have and will continue to benefit from my previous passion. Who will benefit from the carefully purchased, fantastically diverse collection that I've put together?

Of course, I'm bitten - I love coin collecting and will continue to avidly learn and pursue. I worry for the future though.