Combining my two favorite hobbies

Donsell · Mar 19, 2018

I can't wait for my retirement when I can spend my days metal detecting and my nights doing astronomy.

The Astronomy Picture of the Day today has a Bronze Age object found by a detectorist in Germany that's thought to be the oldest depiction of the night sky.

I'd love to have found this, not just because it's valued at $11 Million.

Birddog1911 · Mar 19, 2018

Boy, that'd be a nice find!

Mud-puppy · Mar 19, 2018

Totlot? Underneath the swings?

Scooterjim · Mar 19, 2018

12 million until he hit it with a shovel.

KiowaRd · Mar 19, 2018

That would be an awesome find for someone interested in astronomy. Or anyone else for that matter

ArthurEvans · Mar 19, 2018

The Nebra Disk. About 12" across. 3600 years old. Found in 1999, sold on black market for a fraction of its value. It and the archaeological site it was found on were both damaged by the finders, who were aware that they were illegally digging in a neolithic/bronze age site.

CoffinCat · Mar 19, 2018

I saw that today on APoD and was going to post it. Ya beat me to it :grin:

That would have been an exciting discovery. The post mentions that there might be a second one. I hope someone finds it so we might figure out how this thing works.

cruiserkev · Mar 19, 2018

I knew I wasn't the only detectorist out there who's also into Astronomy. :grin:

Many times I've stayed up late behind the telescope eyepiece only to go to bed for a couple hours then get up for treasure hunting. Kind of like burning the candle at both ends but both these hobbies are immensely rewarding. Good luck! :sun2:

Donsell · Mar 19, 2018

cruiserkev said:
I knew I wasn't the only detectorist out there who's also into Astronomy.
Many times I've stayed up late behind the telescope eyepiece only to go to bed for a couple hours then get up for treasure hunting. Kind of like burning the candle at both ends but both these hobbies are immensely rewarding. Good luck!

You'll have to join us for the Nebraska Star Party sometime, Cruiser. Beautiful skies at night and some parks to hunt during the day.

cruiserkev · Mar 19, 2018

Donsell said:
You'll have to join us for the Nebraska Star Party sometime, Cruiser. Beautiful skies at night and some parks to hunt during the day.

Love to sometime, thank you. :grin:

Over here we do the Table Mountain star party in eastern Washington most years. High elevation, clear views and zero light pollution.

GKL · Mar 19, 2018

I've been interested in astronomy as a casual side hobby since I was a kid, I had a cheap (but it still was fun) 3 inch reflector as a kid, and now as a big kid :lol:

I have an older version of the Edmond Astroscan wide field telescope (picture below), also a humble 60mm refractor, and a few binoculars.

hoser · Mar 19, 2018

I used to be into astronomy quite a while ago and It was fn while it lasted. I had a ten inch Dobsonian and I was amazed at what you can see in the night sky. It got to the point the scope was hard to store. Standing it in the corner, it looked like a hot water heater. :laughing:

yooper69 · Mar 19, 2018

Really cool .

GKL · Mar 19, 2018

hoser said:
I used to be into astronomy quite a while ago and It was fn while it lasted. I had a ten inch Dobsonian and I was amazed at what you can see in the night sky. It got to the point the scope was hard to store. Standing it in the corner, it looked like a hot water heater.

Neat, I thought about getting one of those "Dobs" in the past but they were out of the range of my "hobby budget" :lol:

They are also known as "light buckets" :lol:

hoser · Mar 19, 2018

GKL said:
Neat, I thought about getting one of those "Dobs" in the past but they were out of the range of my "hobby budget"

They are also known as "light buckets"

If I could do it over I would, or should have gone with a Cassegrain instead. Would have taken up way less space.

Combining my two favorite hobbies

Donsell

Birddog1911

Senior Member

Mud-puppy

Scooterjim

Elite Member

KiowaRd

ArthurEvans

Senior Member

CoffinCat

Full Member

cruiserkev

Elite Member

Donsell

cruiserkev

Elite Member

GKL

hoser

yooper69

Elite Member

GKL

hoser

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