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Posts Made By: Anthony Lutton

July 3, 2007 03:25 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

All weather notebooks/paper?

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Anyone use the products (or anything similar) at: http://www.riteintherain.com/ ?

My notebook (loose leaf paper in a 3 ring binder basically) is pretty ratty due to the dew. Especially some sections that have been out a lot of times (like the Herschel 400 lists I printed out). The Herald-Bobroff Astroatlas uses a paper that is dew resistant and I really like how it has held up.

July 21, 2007 06:12 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Refinishing a TV Gibraltar - Walnut

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Anyone refinish a TV Gibraltar tripod with the Walnut color? What is a good stain to use? Should it just be sanded down lightly, and stained with an all weather stain or stained and then clear coated?

What about touching up the black metal parts, or is it probably best to paint the entire surface with something like Ultraflat Black? They have a slight texture to them which is nice, but probably not able to be reproduced by myself.

Thanks for any input.

August 19, 2007 02:54 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

Stellarvue F50 finder

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Anyone use one of these? Is it worth the upgrade cost from an Orion 9x50 RACI? Or at that price point, would it be better to upgrade to a 70 or 80mm finder?

Consider FOV, weight...etc. I'm looking to move to an illuminated finder with easier focusing than the Orion.

May 17, 2010 10:23 AM Forum: After Dark

Re: Allignment of my "Mongrel" Ultima 2000

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Please move this to the Equipment section or Celestron forum.

August 26, 2011 05:42 PM Forum: After Dark

Comet C/2009 P1 Garradd and M71

Posted By Anthony Lutton
For many of us, tonight comet C/2009 P1 Garradd will pass VERY close to M71. The Sky Tools software creater maintains a nice comet blog with finder charts and I'm linking the one for this comet.

http://cometchasing.skyhound.com/comets/2009_P1.pdf

Anyone plan on observing/imaging this tonight?

January 8, 2012 01:37 PM Forum: After Dark

Re: Do people do astronomy with annoying friends?

Posted By Anthony Lutton
I mostly observe by myself, but when our club has outings I always try to make it. Luckily, we have a fairly small group that tends to show up. Due to our horrible skies most of the time, we get terribly photon deprived and everyone wants to observe!

A few times, we've all shown up hoping the skies would clear and then end up talking equipment/joking around under the 100% overcast skies.

One thing to remember, the people who buy/sell/buy/sell constantly allow folks like me to keep buying nearly mint used items at great discounts!

June 5, 2012 11:52 AM Forum: After Dark

Transit of Venus - Today!

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Unless you completely fear the sun, be sure to safely observe it this afternoon for the transit of Venus! If you are one of the many (looking at the current cloud cover over the US) that will be socked in with clouds, there are a number of live feeds from the big observatories around the world. Below are a few links, but if you just search "Venus Transit Live Feed" it will return many good links.

http://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/ - has links to numerous live feeds and lots of information on the event

http://events.slooh.com/ - more live feeds and information with some web shows ahead of time


Unless you plan on living until 2117, this is your last shot at viewing this as it happens!

June 5, 2012 11:53 AM Forum: Solar System Observing

Transit of Venus - today!

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Unless you completely fear the sun, be sure to safely observe it this afternoon for the transit of Venus! If you are one of the many (looking at the current cloud cover over the US) that will be socked in with clouds, there are a number of live feeds from the big observatories around the world. Below are a few links, but if you just search "Venus Transit Live Feed" it will return many good links.

http://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/ - has links to numerous live feeds and lots of information on the event

http://events.slooh.com/ - more live feeds and information with some web shows ahead of time


Unless you plan on living until 2117, this is your last shot at viewing this as it happens!

June 5, 2012 05:37 PM Forum: Solar System Observing

Re: SV66

Posted By Anthony Lutton
Yes. I'm guessing you do not have a solar filter for it already since you are asking. Typically a "white light" filter made of mylar or coated glass is used (http://www.kendrickastro.com/astro/solarfilters.html).

If you are hoping to observe the transit today, you'll need to setup to do a solar projection. The following link has a few pictures to give you an idea on how to do it. http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/sun/Viewing_the_Sun_Safely.html?showAll=y

Do not, under any circumstances, look into the telescope or finderscope without a proper filter. It could cause major damage to your eyes!!

April 10, 2002 03:16 AM Forum: Meade

Best Counterweight fo LX 200

Posted By Anthony Lutton
The Losmandy are very nice (as are all of their equipment) in that they are 2 dimensional... help to balance RA and DEC. The little suckers jiggle around some though... Either should work wonderfully. I personally have the Meade set as they came with my scope when I bought it, but I have seen both in action. I'd go with whatever ones you can find cheapest/easiest! Hope that helps! Anthony

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