Posts Made By: Steve Thornton

Rey,

Starting out, get the Virtual Moon Atlas for your computer. It's FREE, just a big file(about 600mb) but it can't be beat with the current phase and tons of info. Next, Rukl's moon atlas and Charles Wood's Modern Moon gives you great resources for observing(Rukl's) and in-depth info about the geology(Modern Moon) of easily observable formations. For more about observing and imaging, go to the Yahoo Lunar Oberving site. These will keep you busy for a long time!

Steve Thornton

Thanks Robert. I did have some trouble scaling them down.

Oren,

I put together an OTA for an AP Starfire triplet 6" f/9 lens that I bought 18 years ago. I have an 8" long dew shield and no opening near the lens. Perhaps I did it right the first time but I have never had any thermal issues with it. The only thing I do is take it outside at least an hour before I use it. That works perfectly.

I would avoid going without a dew shield because of....dew. I would also avoid putting any sort of opening near the lens to avoid dust getting on lens from the inside. I built the OTA with a fiberglass tube covered with an oak veneer and the lens hood from a sonotube. I think the combination of all that just works perfectly.

Steve Thornton

I wish it had more of an edge to it like The Lost Room or X-files. It's sort of formulaic right now.

Steve

Linton,

Is this what you saw? I was out Saturday night to image the scar and got this shadow transit.

Steve

Although it's not so great for the millions of Florida residents who will be flooded out when half of the state is submerged from the rising sea levels that will come from just melted Greenland ice. But then again, we won't have to worry about the Miami Dolphins and that damned college offense they have.

Not surprising given the magnitude of all the crap he's had to clean up from the Bush administration. 95% of everything he's been doing is getting us out of the mess caused by W and his wealthy masters, who have done all they could to plunder this country. Everything else to do, supporting stem cell research, equal pay for women, health care, combating climate change, green technologies, will change the country for the better. God Speed Obama.

p.s. What was the answer by the Republicans? John McCain and Sarah Palin? A 72-year-old who thought the fundamentals of the economy were fine and a woman who couldn't answer a hardball question about what newspapers she reads.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Here's a guy who's made hundreds of millions of dollars using his squeaky clean public image and now that he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar(s), he wants his privacy protected. He says he's sorry for his "transgressions." Rings a little hollow AFTER he gets caught. Not so much hypocritical as just completely FAKE! IMHO he needs a new PR flack to invent a new squeaky clean public image. You know, the whole nine yards; hook up with dr. phil, or a famous religious personality to show how much he's suffering, then hire a team of PR people to document what a precious home life he has, then finally hit Oprah or Katie Couric to do a fluff piece on him.

I hate to be cynical, but after all, haven't we seen this a dozen times before? I mean, aren't we really a celebrity-obsessed culture and don't we give them a pass on everything? That's why we get all these stupid reality shows with their insufferable contestants, we get the presidential dinner party crashers and the balloon boy parents. And with all the pressing problems we have, I just can't find too much compassion for these celebrities.

Must be fun to live the simple life of a Republican; Kill, Baby, Kill, and Drill, Baby, Drill. Thank God we have a President who actually thinks before he acts and takes time to plan before committing troops to war.

We could have used that before getting involved in a useless war which has killed 4,500 brave Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, and will eventually cost upwards of two trillion dollars. All for NOTHING. We attacked a dictator with no WMD's while leaving one, Lil' Kim in North Korea, one that actually has nukes, alone.

Eight years of a useless war, a vice-president outing CIA agents to cover that useless war, our Constitution trashed, a wrecked economy, environmental laws ignored and a Justice Department perverted.

Who leads the Republican Party now? Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Sen. David Vitter, Sen Ensign, Michelle Bachmann, South Carolina Gov Sanford, Glenn Beck, Dick Cheney. Other countries must be laughing their asses off looking at these loonies.

I'm not going to change any minds but I rest easy knowing that history is not going to judge these people kindly.

Take a real close look at that photo. Once global warming melts the polar ice and desalinates the gulf stream, stopping it, that is what we're going to be facing. You can take the simpleton Rush Limbaugh approach and go out in winter asking why it's cold, but it's no laughing matter. The Pentagon already is studying the effects of climate change for national security reasons; they're taking it seriously.