Celestron Omni 102 XLT AZ. I'm a licensed pesticide applicator by trade and a customer of mine had a 10-year bout with clusterflies that I was able to solve in two visits. They know I'm into astronomy and so one day I show up to their residents and there it is, with a tag attached to it addressed to me, thanking me for helping them out. It is my new grab and go telescope! Delivers pretty nice views for what it is!
Celestron cr150 HD with a substandard cg5 mount. 375 bucks, could not turn it down. Wobbly as hell, needs a good mount but OMG the sharpness, the sheer size. I have had this for over 20 years and I am in the process of saving up for a proper mount. This thing goes toe-toe with my 8-in lx10 SCT regarding deep sky and it just simply crushes it on double stars and globular clusters. It's extremely front heavy and balancing it properly requires it to be set way too far back. I still love it though. The objective is in pristine shape.
Lab grown Crystal of praseodymium sulfate that I got as a Christmas gift about 30 years ago.
Pictured here are two examples of terminated beryllium minerals, phenakite and aquamarine from Mount Antero in Chaffee county Colorado. I found these with my parents at an elevation of around 14,000 feet when I was 16. EXTREMELY RARE locality! The phenakite is exceptionally rare in that it is not only doubly terminated, it is also gemmy and may be included with Bazzite, the scandium analog of beryl!
I'll never forget the first time I tried this stuff and how wonderful I thought it was. It was like kratom on steroids, and it helped with chronic pain that I experience as a result of my time in service. I started off by buying single tabs, one at a time, 20 to 25 mg a piece. Started off with quarters, then halves, then 2/3s before too long, it was getting out of control.
It crept up on me, silently and insiduously and before I knew it, I was up to 400 mg to 600 mg a day. I have a decent enough job that it was not really affecting my financial situation so I just kept at it. And then the rest is history. I went from 500 mg a day down to absolute zero and all hell broke loose, I felt like I was going to explode.
So here I am now, 10x 50 mg tablets left as well as a few things to help me on my journey. I also have some leaf but not much. Today I have taken just 75 mg and I have 25 left in reserve (80% reduction in dose overall. Tomorrow the real journey begins, I am going to go as long as I possibly can without it! When I get to the point where I feel like I just can't take it anymore, I am going to take an eighth of a tab , maybe a quarter. And then I will start spacing bare minimum 6 to 8 hours between doses. My job is customer facing so withdrawals are going to have to be managed very carefully. I'm not going to lie, I am scared.
I have done much harder things in my life than this, but I know this is not going to be easy. I suppose this post is part rant/ pep talk that I'm giving myself, maybe it will inspire others, maybe I can get further inspiration by joining a group like this such as I just did.
Here we go! I am so excited to get off this sh*t, QND have more spending money!
Who goes hunting in Cygnus for galaxy clusters with an S50? I do, and I found one! In these images, just south of the North America Nebula I managed to get UGC 11797, UGC 11798, UGC 11801 and PGC 67244, the brightest of which is a meager 15.1 magnitude. 30 minute exposure, 10 second subs, no processing apart from cropping. Not pretty at all but so very, very faint. This is my favorite asppect of astrophotography - faint fuzzies!
1 inch gemmy orange scheelite crystal on a bed of mica blades from Ping Wu, China. Personal collection, one of my favorite specimens.
Delete if not allowed! 3 mm cluster of Parisite-(Ce) with black anatase on a bed of transparent bertrandite from Solumsåsen Quarry, Holmestrand, Vestfold og Telemark, Norway. Personal collection. I have numerous rare and unusual mineral specimens in my collection and this is one of my favorite micros.
Been lurking in this group for a while and figured I'd finally join. I've been into astronomy for almost 40 years. As of now, I have a pair of 11x80 comet catcher binoculars, a Celestron Omni 102 (was a tip from a customer!!), a Meade Lx10, Celestron CR-150 6" F8 refractor, a seestar S50 and a Celestron CPC1100.
Hand sample of three incredibly rare minerals: Decrespignyite, Paratooite and Kamphaugite from the Paratoo copper mine in Australia. Decrespignyite is only found at this location and nowhere else on Earth. This mineral contains a broad range of rare earth elements. From my personal collection.
Please remove if not allowed. in addition to some pure metallic cubes that I've recently purchased, I have over 1,500 mineral specimens representing over 320 different species this is a personally collected crystal of betafite from Bancroft, Ontario. When I was in 8th grade, we went on a school science field trip to Bancroft to collect radioactive minerals as well as apatite, richterite and others. Betafite is a member of the pyrochlore group and contains thorium, titanium, uranium and niobium. I have been collecting mineral specimens for over 30 years and have had the chance to do field collecting in over 40 states.
Hello! I've always been mineral/Rock hound enthusiast and have been all over the USA collecting fossils and minerals. Only recently have I begun to focus on elements (although I've always wanted to collect them!). This is what I have so far, but I also have native gold that I have found, a native Platinum nugget, I had a troy ounce of palladium that I sold and I have over 300 different mineral species in my collection. I know the cubes from Luciteria are somewhat expensive but I am willing to pay a premium to get something like these. I do my best to keep them in cool and dry environments, but I am a bit worried about the stability of some of the rare earth elements. Are there any special precautions that I should take? The green crystal is a lab-grown crystal of praseodymium sulfate that I've had for nearly 30 years.
Was doing a treatment for Carpenter ants at a customer's house and I saw a little speck jumping around. I got close and lo and behold, I saw the bright red! This is Habronattus coecatus! Mature male, caught in Washington County Pennsylvania just now. I think he's coming home with me, I have been watching him closely to make sure he hasn't come in contact with any pesticides.
Here we see Chewie, channeling elements of jazz and general merriment as she's got a large cricket for dinner. She's got lots of moves.
I wonder what (or if) she was thinking when it drove by?
This is Puck, one of several Habronattus coecatus jumpers that I've hand raised (also H. viridus, H. borealis). He lived for about 9 months and never got larger than 4-5mm or so. Shame they're so small, as they're very lively and can be engaging.
Born March 16th 2024, passed April 2nd 2026. These photos were from the day that I got her as well as the day that she passed. She taught me so much about keeping jumpers. By the time she was near the end, she appeared as though she had lost her eyesight as she was entirely unable to track prey unless if they could be felt. She was a great girl.
Caught this beautiful girl in a bait station at and Enterprise rental car Center in Uniontown. Couldn't bear to keep her, hopefully she will have babies in my yard! She took one final dump as a 'thank you' (I fed her well before I sent her on her way). The way she kept looking at me while cleaning the condensation off of her eyes after coming out of air conditioning 🥰
Filmed on Christmas day 2024, Desi decided to behave a bit like Tootsie and was really on a roll here. She even had Cecil in the audience.