Aside From Coins, Do You Have Any Other Hobbies?

Not long. That one is more of a 4-D puzzle than a kit. It came pre-painted. All I had to do was assemble around 146 pieces. The instructions say no glue is required, but in my experience it does require some super glue and a little extra effort to get some pieces to fit properly, but the end result is great. It is a huge and highly detailed model.

You can buy it through Amazon or other online retailers. Price is between $120 and $140 depending where you get it. I got mine from an online retailer on a special for $90, but that offer expired already.

 

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The fossil bug bit me about the same time I started collecting coins - age 5 or 6. To me, an ancient coin is sort of like a historical fossil, especially as most are a bit rough and irregular, as if organically produced. Or maybe I should say, fossils seem like prehistoric coins - especially roundish ones like clams, brachiopods, trilobites, and the like. I've written 7 books about fossils and 5 books about ancient and medieval coins, so coins are catching up in the more sedentary part of my life.

 

Just finished the Chinese Shenzhou-10 spacecraft docked with the Tiangong-1 space station. This mission occured in 2013 and was China's 5th manned space mission. My son likes the new model a lot.

 

Sun (Visible Light Spectrum)
No sunspot activity
Observation: 03/22/2018 @4:20 EST Miami, FL
Observation tools: 4.75 inch dobsonian telescope with 25mm eyepiece and Mylar solar filter.

Photo taken with a Motorola G5Plus (a $200 phone). LOL.

 

It seems to be on a GEM mount rather than a Dobsonian, though

ATB,
Aidan.

 

I like to draw. Charcoal is my preferred medium and I do more realism—I draw what I see. I've been attending the figure drawing co-ops around the Twin Cities the past few years. The content that I draw during those sessions are NSFW, so I will refrain from sharing them publicly here, but if interested or have similar interests, hit me up on PM.

--Edit--

Found some that are safe:

 

and chess
https://lichess.org/

 

Its an equatorial mount that came with the telescope. Not sure I get the joke, though I'm sure there's one there.

I'm probably going to buy a dedicated H-alpha solar telescope so I can see solar flares and prominences on the sun, something you can't see with my dobsonian with a visible light solar filter. H-alpha telescopes are outrageously expensive though, so it will probably be between the $700 Coronado 40mm or the $800 Lunt 50mm. I can't justify spending $1,500 for a 60mm mid-range solar telescope that I'll only be able to use on weekends as most weekdays I work quite late.

Coronado 40mm PST



Lunt 50mm H-alpha



Right now I'm leaning towards the Lunt.

 

PROOST!

 

I play a LOT of Path of Exile (video game).

Other than that, I'm a bit of a serial collector. I have a few different collections that I flip flop between every once in a while. Besides coins and currency, I also have a nearly complete baseball card collection where I'm trying to get PSA graded Rookies (or as close as possbile) of each MVP and Cy Young award winner.

I also collect frog shaped fishing lures like these (Many pictured date back to the 1800s /Early 1900s):


And, I build my own fishing lures, here are some examples of my handy work:

 

I've coached girl's hockey for the last 12 years. I live in a small town so we have
to travel extensively to play games. We're out 5 nights a week and stay in hotels many weekends. It is a lot of fun and helps the cold Canadian winter fly by... season starts in September and isn't over until the last week in May.. after that it's summer - which is kicking back in the garden and enjoying a cold beer..
Here are my two daughters:

 

Picked this up today. Worked well at the store, is missing the runner needle but I think one of the tubes broke on the drive home. Just hums now

 

Astronomy - I have a 10" Zhumell Dob and also an 18" Obsession Dob. I try to stargaze a couple of nights per week, weather and moon permitting, of course.

 

Even I have trouble relating to my generation. But that means I can relate to the generation before me. Makes coin clubs and shows much more fun.

 

I have found that I really like exploring old cities and taking pictures of old buildings.

Cathedral Notre Dame, Metz, France



Cathedral Notre Dame, Strasbourg, France



Medieval buildings, Trier, Germany



Colosseum, Rome, Italy



Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy



Il Duomo, Florence, Italy



Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland



Corcomroe Abbey, Ireland



Gothic City Hall, Brussels, Belgium



Roman Bathhouse, Metz, France

 

Nice hobby! That is one of mine too. The white building in Trier is called Steipe by the way, originally 15c, destroyed in WW2 and completely rebuilt in the late 1960s. The palace in Brussels is indeed at the Grand'Place/Grote Markt, but your photo shows the Maison du Roi/Broodhuis (see here). An old building indeed, but "Gothic Revival" enhanced.

Christian

 

Yeah, whoops... They look the same in thumbnail form.

Here is what I was wanting to post:

 

What do you like to observe? The "moon permitting" comment makes me think of extended objects rather than planets, multiple stars, or variables...

 

My favorite objects are galaxies, globular clusters, nebulae, and open clusters in that order. Of course I have to contend with the local light pollution here, but I have a fairly good view to the East. Thanks for asking.

 

Cute kid