What’s the cheapest scientific instrument that can get an average amateur to the bleeding edge of discovery work? So not just scutwork that the pros with billion dollars instruments like CERN or Hubble indulgently farm out.
No but you’re missing the point a bit. If it can be done with a smartphone and no special attachments, it’s mostly crowdsourced scutwork. You can get lucky that way, but it’ll be lottery type luck.