Time for astronomy? What are you other recreational hobbies keeping you busy?

[overlord]

Tennis
Racquet Sports, squash racquetball
Collecting and Reading a mountain of books and making annotations on many topics/genres.
Golf once a week (Going to driving range and different courses)
Travel, camping, backpacking sometimes in different cities
I might buy a goldfish to keep me company as a pet. :eyepop:
Internet forums
Collecting stuff from auctions, if cheap and what I am looking for.
Drag racing. I wanted to become a rally driver but my ex sapped all my enthusiasm by browbeating me into submission that she would not marry me.
Photography, bird and landscape, going to bird hides around melbourne, wetlands, etc, telephoto, etc.

How about yall...

[brian nordstrom]

:D Bush bashing in my 4x4 .
Riding my GPX750r Kawasiki .
Brian.

[MrB]

Work and girlfriend, and a little bit of astronomy.
Would love to collect/repair old Pinball machines but just don't have the space :(

[Colin_Fraser]

Now retired I don't know how I found time to go to work.
To keep the mind active I tinker with embedded controllers, programming PIC micro's.
Also hold small commuter classes, Broadband for Seniors.
For physical exercise I jump on the Harley and go for a ride.

[hotspur]

Too many hobbies-not enough time.Apart from astronomy here's a few others.

Dingo/wild dog trapping,bird watching,fishing,bushwalking,tarot card reading(well I got have some hobby to pay for all those astro gear purchases),collecting and reading books,using a metal detector along the beach,general photography.

[Rob P]

Soccer - playing and watching

But the main hobby is running around after the kids :lol:; basketball, dancing, soccer, dancing, tennis and dancing. Oh yes, and a bit more dancing :rofl:

I think myself and my wife have a bit of sit-down-to-ourselves time between 4 & 4:15 on a Sunday afternoon!!!

[Colin_Fraser]

Ah kids. Time well spent.

[JB80]

It's a bit like that Rob, I barely have time for anything else these days as the kids take up all my time. I think I might be under the false illusion that this time will free up as they get older.

I used to be a member of a fishing club in Adelaide and would like to think this is something I'll get back into, doesn't have to be in a club but it'd just be nice to find the time.
Darts was always good too.

But really for now it's more about family.
And naps, naps are great.

[jjjnettie]

Oh boy, I hear you there. :)

Mine is rather a sedentary life. :)
I'm involved in our local art society. It's exciting times atm, our Art Gallery is reopening very soon in it's new location. I'm getting the office side of it set up. :D
Photography club is fun.
I have my little vegie patch I can potter in.
At the moment both my sewing machines are out and I'm busy sewing a few scope dust covers to sell at Astrofest.
I belong to a hiking group, and if they have a nice easy walk organised, I'll go along to that.
If the mood hits me, I'll drag out my dremle and do some gourd carving.

[Astro_Bot]

/me ... Briefly puts aside worries of looking very dull indeed.

This lot currently consumes my free time:

Music (I play keyboard badly)
Golf (I play that even worse)
Electronics and IT (I have, sadly, 8 computers to keep me company - most self-built - and I tinker here or there with 'leccy gibbers)
Cycling, except someone nicked my bike a while back (I've been looking at getting a new one, but it's a toss up)
Home renovation (Take my advice: don't)
The usual mix of entertainment and distractions with the notable exception of "reality" television

[scopemankit]

playng tennis
multitracking with my guitar
painting
facebook

[Jen]

Between work, kids, IIS and facebook i dont have much time for any other hobbies (building model cars, drawing and jigsaw puzzles) :rolleyes: but........ when Friday arvo comes along i dont mind cracking a UDL can or two and partying up in the shed with the fire and a few tunes or watching the footy hehehe :D

[pgc hunter]

Flight Simulator X

Going to Dan Murphys

Plane spotting

[Blakout]

Eating junk food and watching TV and diid I mention eating ?

[AstralTraveller]

Traveling and camping and enjoying nature and birdwatching and walking and photography ... phew. It sounds a lot but of course I get much less time to enjoy them than I would like. Music is more of an everyday pleasure. I play bass (acoustic bass guitar) not very good but not too bad in a regular bluegrass jam. I've long though about getting a melody instrument, something I can play tunes on by myself, and last week my octave mandolin arrived. I can play a handful of chords .. eventually and last night could rough out the first part of Old Joe Clark. Royal Command Performance here I come. :rolleyes:

[madbadgalaxyman]

I blew ~$2K on a stereomicroscope so as to look at the various small creatures and fungi in the soil.
Ended up spending two years working with a soil scientist, looking at soil samples.

I highly recommend taking a stereomicroscope to the observing site, just for those cloudy nights. (now that sounds a little weird.....)

[jjjnettie]

I've been keen to purchase a decent microscope for a couple of years now. I figure a glass of pond water will keep me happy for days imaging all those little critters. :)
Could you pm me with any recommendations for a suitable set up? please

[Astroman]

Hmmmm Storm Chasing, Aero-modelling, looking for money....

[Tinderboxsky]

Well, our children have grown up and moved on and I am now only working about a day a week, so plenty of time for Liz and myself to do the things we want to do do. We enjoy exploring Australia together and we are both keen Mah Jong and Scrabble Players.
My other passion is sailing and wooden racing yachts. I own Peri, a Derwent Class racing yacht which is a piece of Hobart's maritime heritage. I've attached a couple of photos from the Derwent Worlds held here last February.
I also find time to grow berry fruits - loganberries, boysenberries, youngberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, black and red currents and probably some others I have forgotten to mention. I do a mean berry pie and summer pudding. Liz has experimented with berry liqueurs which we and our neighbours have enjoyed. The photo shows the loganberry and boysenberry rows.

Cheers

Steve

[blink138]

well ckucky theres nothing like owning a goldfish as your intellectual equal ha ha! good for bouncing ideas off!
however my most important things in life for my sanity are the ones that have been with me for just about my entire life
football,astronomy and music from about the age of six and then i became an avid wine collector from the age of eighteen........ all rather expensive hobbies dont you agree?
for many many years it was a case of krug taste on beer budget!
pat

[blink138]

oh yeah and vinyl records rule!!!!
pat

[Rob P]

And, of course, cloud spotting :rofl:

[Chris.B]

I got back into Astronomy to have a home hobby when we started a family. Now it's one of the few hobbies I get away overnight for.
That's a part from campertrailer holidays which we try do as often as possible.

Besides that athletics and mainly pole vault keeps me busy these days. Coaching and competing. Camera gets a good workout there too.

And of course the running 2 girls to all their activities.

[madbadgalaxyman]

I will get back to you as soon as I can, regarding the microscope.
(could take a couple of days).

The first thing you become aware of when looking at "bio" things is the extreme complexity of organisms.....I probably have the equivalent of three units of university biology, but I keep asking myself "what the hell is that?" when I look at organisms.
A lot of organisms don't want to be seen (they hide!!), especially those in the soil, so you have to build simple apparatus to extract them! (Also, preparation of specimens can be extremely important, so as to be able to see some types of critters.)

A stereo microscope that gives magnifications in the range of 10 to 150 power will be all that you need, as the high power instruments are a bugger to use....tiny depth of field, so you have to prepare specimens and make slides;
and in any case, really tiny things like cells and bacteria don't show all that much detail unless the specimen is prepared in a specific way.

In contrast, Fungi and arthropods and single-celled animals are quite large, and don't require a lot of specimen preparation. So they are extremely easy to see in a good-quality stereo microscope.

My stereomicroscope has two "tubes" for the eyes, plus a separate tube for the camera; you can photograph or make a video while you are looking! (a "trinocular" microscope)

cheers, Robert

[Terry B]

Lots of very similar interests. Running around after the kids seems high on the list. For me this is mostly gymnastics for which I have become a judge as well as a childens taxi driver.:P

For me I like making model engines in my shed, skiing and ice skating when I can afford the time and money, gardening, and riding the quad bike around my property.

[goober]

It was cycling, golf, tennis, running, and boardgames.

Now it's being a dad to a 3.5 year old boy ... it's great.

[MrB]

Another one!
I'm just getting started, still tooling up.
There is another IIS member building a Whittle v8, though his username escapes me.

[syousef]

Photography, Flying RC aircraft, Flight simulation, Computers, Music, Lego with my son, and having my infant daughter use me as a climbing gym.

I do love my children and I wouldn't swap them for anything, but I find the baby and infant stages don't come naturally. As they are getting older I am already starting to get a lot more joy out of the interaction (e.g. lego, teaching my son all sorts of things....he spotted the southern cross last weekend after I showed him in Stellarium and asked him to find it. SO PROUD!!!)

[astro_nutt]

Lots of tinkering in the workshop. Trying to design a new scope mount or improving my current mount. Reading and doco watching. Cooking up something tasty but not too healthy. Camping and the odd long walk restores my sanity.

[shelltree]

Love my photography! My partner and I try to head out every Saturday morning for a sunrise or out somewhere during the day :) I also love to write and will hopefully be starting my first novel length written piece in a few months!

[Davros]

Old landrovers, Camping, fishing, hunting, photography etc. etc. oh and the vege patch and chooks :P:P

[Darth Wader]

My first passion is writing. I'm currently working on my first novel and a short science fiction story.

Gardening is very cathartic for me, even though I haven't been able to do much of it lately!:lol:

I also love video games, been playing for around thirty years now and never tire of them.

[Ric]

There's always something around the farm to keep me busy.

Then there is the volunteer work with the Rural Fire Service, not exactly a hobby but it keeps me busy with training and callouts.

I don't mind a round of golf if the chance arises.

[sheeny]

Like a lot of people here, I have lots.:) My interests move around among them from time to time (like visiting old friends:P).

Motorcycling: touring on the GS and playing on the 315R. Been doing that since I was 8.

Music: playing guitar (and bass, banjo mandolin, congas, etc), and more recently modelling music in FL Studio. Been doing that since I was 15.

Dancing: I used to square dance (that's where all the girls were ;)), but later took up rock'n'roll, rockabilly and 'bug. Been doing that since I was 19.

Bushwalking: Started doing that when I was too young to remember. With the usual spin offs of course: camping, abseiling, canyoning and caving.

Four wheel driving: started doing that probably in my 30s.

Farming: been doing this for the last 5 years or so. Takes me back to when I was growing up. So much to do... no pressure.

Photography: started in my late teens. Used to take panoramic shots on a Kodak Instamatic and manually trim and assemble the photos.;) That's how you make real panos!:lol: Always been more into landscapes than portraits...

Long distance running: haven't done that in aaaaggggeeessss!:lol: Started about 12, stopped when living in Sydney in my early 20s due to the pollution and the effect it had on my throat:eyepop:. Tried to get back into again unsuccessfully a few times.

Computing: There was a time when computing was fun. I used to spend weeks making my old MicroBee do pretty mundane things by today's standards, and writing magazine articles on how to do it. It stopped being fun when windows took hold and computing became useful, and therefore somehow necessary.:sadeyes: I still spend a lot of time on one these days and occasionally get a little satisfaction writing little astro applications in VB.NET.

Rescue: Got into that when I was 25 and stopped for political reasons in 2005. Had some very unique and special experiences in that time and sad to stop, but there are some very ugly, unsavoury people in positions of power playing with peoples lives. I pushed as hard as I could...:shrug: I still do the odd bit of consulting for fire / rescue organisations and magazines around the world.:)

Learning: love it, in all its forms - except doing "mandatory" training on stuff that I know... suck eggs? again?!:lol: I also enjoy training and teaching, but I have become very cynical about competency based training w.r.t poor assessment techniques and lack of RPL/RCC.

I could probably go on...

:)

Al.

[cometcatcher]

Ghost hunting....

Before I got sick...er, running, cycling, gardening, mowing. I actually LOVE mowing - I get a strange fascination watching grass disappear under one of my 6 mowers. Amateur radio, electronics, 12 volt solar, receiving NOAA APT weather satellites, VLF reception, coin collecting.

I should probably get into radio astronomy one year.

[Chillie]

Playing with my snake.

Trying to learn to play the banjo.

I have several other hobbies that I pick up and put down from time to time.

[Wookie]

HAHA!
Thanks for sharing.....
Sorry...this is a G rated forum

[Chillie]

Just to confuse your wrong thinking Ryan, It is a female snake.

[stephenb]

- Model Railways.

- collecting vintage Lego sets, most from the 70's.

- Family time.

Stephen.

[Poita]

Well, Uni and my three girls keep me plenty busy, I end up sharing a lot of their interests, rocketry, board-games, a bit of photography, skating.

I also restore movies from 16mm/35mm or even from laserdisc if there has been no other release format.
We don't have a TV, and aren't on any social media (unless IIS counts) so you would think we would have plenty of hours, but they always seem to be filled.
I cook a lot too, but need to get more exercise so I can cook some more :)

[Poita]

I've been wanting to do the same.

The other day though I threw a lens on an extension tube onto the end of my DBK21, and was amazed at how well it works as a video microscope. Gave me and the kids hours of facscinating micro-fun.

I too would love to get a good bino-microscope one day.