I've got entirely too many hobbies, which some people tell me are too much like work and that I need to relax. Lately I've been hunting for prehistoric artifacts, and I've turned up some interesting things. Here's a handful of Native American pottery sherds I found the other day, all probably around 2000 years old:
Just picked up an Explore Scientific AR 152 Achromatic Refractor and it arrived today - more toys for my astronomy hobby... It's a lot bigger than I thought-6" aperture but an 8" dew shield.
Sweet. That looks like a nice telescope. I am enjoying my new Celestron 6SE, and hoping a few consignments to JA will help me get close to a Lunt solar telescope. In many ways astronomy is more addictive than ancient coins. Sure, ancient coins are amazing and I freaking love them, but there is something surreal about watching binary stars 100+ light years away, or nebulas a couple of hundred light years away, or galaxies a million light years away. It makes you realize your place in this universe and is a humbling and exciting experience.
..i am a practiced artist of this..where do i sign up?!?...(maybe i've a invitation in the pile of mail i've stacked up).. i love Monty Python!!..^^
Those of you who have seen my fossils before know that I'm not really into dinosaurs or other land dwelling creatures that get all the glory around here. Rather, I prefer collecting things that most people tend to overlook...blastoids, crinoids, echinoderms, and other sea dwelling life from the Cambrian period (540,000,000 BCE) to the Triassic period (201,000,000 BCE), before the dinosaurs became the undisputed rulers of the land and started hugging all the glory. Don't ask me why, but I've always found primitive sea life fascinating. I recently made an exception to my pre-201,000,000 years or older rule, and got this rather modern 180,000,000 year old fossil of a belemnite (partial fossil anyway as I suspect 1/3 of the structure is missing). Anyway, here it is, one that is sure to make you squirm...my latest fossil acquisition. SPECIES: Youngibelus gigas AGE: Jurassic (180 Million Years Ago) LOCATION: Holzmaden, Germany FORMATION: Posidonia Shale SIZE: 4.2" long on 5.5x2.6" Rock So what exactly was a belemnite? It was an ancient cephalopod with a hard horn-shaped internal structure, and 10 tentacles with hooks to ensnare their unfortunate meals with. Think of them as an ancient relative of the modern squid, nautilus, and octopus, but much meaner. Often all that survives is the horn-like internal shell as it was the hardest part of the creature. Unfortunately what you usually find on sale is the shell structure highly polished to a jewel-lile gloss like the one below....yuck! At that point it is more a piece of jewelry than an actual fossil you can study and admire. I get it, it's beautiful and it may even shed light on the internal structure, but the shape is lost and it just doesn't look right to me. To each his own. So when I found one that wasn't polished to death, and was still attached to the rock in a very tastefully executed way , I jumped on it. Never been a fan of fossils completely removed from the rock it was found in, so having a piece of the original shale to go with the fossil was a huge plus.
And just for the fun of it, here are my Cambrian Era cystoid Species: Gogia Palmeri Family: Cystoid (Extinct) Middle Cambrian 505,000,000 years old They are probably most closely related to crinoids. Here is a crinoid Like the crinoid above, the cystoid was an animal, not a plant, though people often confuse them for plants. One sure way to tell the Cystoid were animals is that some of the better preserved fossils show a mouth and an anus...right next to each other. Talk about a raw evolutionary deal, excreting right next to where the food went in. If there is a creator, he surely didn't do them any favors, so perhaps it's all for the better that they are extinct.
My son is hooked as well. He drags me out at 3AM all summer long to help him find this week's once in a lifetime occurrence. It's nice to see him hooked, I just wish it was a little more work friendly.
One thing having fossils as a hobby. But I wouldn't like to become one ! A major hobby of mine is History.- Drones are interesting, but they could be used for good or for evil !!!
I play the trumpet, do model railroading, drive my Traxxas RC car, fly my RC airplane, sometimes fish, and play soccer. I also have two pianos. one of which is a player piano.
Here's a couple of new additions to one of my many other hobbies: This is a fossilized pine cone A fossil of an Australian Weevil Cocoon Yes it's in a sealed plastic bag so I couldn't remove. Only the shell on its back gets fossilized as the creature is to difficult to absorb minerals to turn it into a rock. This cocoon is 2 1/2" long. And two different Amethyst Geode chunks from Brazil. You've gotta love rocks and fossils.
Which plane to you have? I've the latest model of the Apprentice, UMX Timber, 35y/o P41 w/ 60" no paper or silk, all balsa and glue. Sixty inch wing span. This sucker has a glow engine, Cajun Commander LiPo RC boat. Gonna buy a 4' fiberglass race boat w/ a four cycle engine. The best sounding engine to me is a four stroke 9 or 11 cylinder radial engine. My brother and I count the days 'til the Triple Tree Joe Nall show. I believe it's the largest RC show in the world. I've seen models w/ 14' wing span..We've gone every year for the last ten years. It was rained out this year. Bummer. https://www.horizonhobby.com/apprentice-s-15e-rtf-with-safe-reg;-technology-efl3100 https://www.amazon.com/EFL-Umx-Timb...TF8&qid=1529448891&sr=8-2&keywords=umx+timber https://www.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bi...MIlfqhreng2wIVFgeGCh0prwfGEAAYASAAEgJqS_D_BwE http://www.tripletreeaerodrome.com/joe-nall-week.php
I have a Mini Apprentice S. I just bought it at the beginning of this year to see what I thought of it. Aside from that, I have brushless traxxas slash 2WD rc car from a couple of years ago that has gone through many upgrades.
Very cool. I don't own any RC vehicles. Guess that's next. I moved from RC planes to RC boats. If you get the opprotunity go to Joe Nall it's amazing. http://www.tripletreeaerodrome.com/joe-nall-week.php
Anyone into Warhammer? I don't war game much, but I really enjoy painting and building the miniatures.
Yep, definitely love me some fossils. Thanks for sharing the Australian goodies. That cocoon fossil is sweet, and the pinecone is a nice touch. I'm in the mood to share more!!! Here is some Blastoids.... Oops, wrong one. Let's try this again, Blastoids! SPECIES: Pentremites AGE: Upper Mississipian (~325 Million Years) LOCATION: St. Clair County, Illinois FORMATION: Ridenhower Formation SIZE: Blastoids .35" Long, Plate 2.9" wide And of course, who doesn't love some graptolites? These are other animals that are often mistaken for plant fossils due to their habit to connect their living chambers to each other, forming colonies that often resemble fern-like structures...except that when this animal colony was alive the first plants were just starting to appear, had no real root or stem systems yet, had no leafs in the strict sense of the word, and were only 2cm to 20cm tall... so needless to say that ferns were many millions of years away from existing. SPECIES: Didymograptus murchisoni AGE: Middle Ordovician (~460 Million Years) LOCATION: South West Wales, Great Britain FORMATION: Bifidus Beds, Llanvirn SIZE: 3.4"x 2.8"