September 19, 2010 – M92 & M29

Nice clear, cool night. Observed from 9-10 or so, until the mirror dewed up too much.

Observations:

• M92: Found Pi Her in the finder, then hopped to a mag5 star, then over to M92. Pretty easy to find. Nice star cluster. Looked the best with the 10mm EP. Could resolve the brightest stars in the cluster. Looked through the 10mm EP + 2x Barlow, which was pretty dim but easier to resolve the brightest stars.
• M29: The most difficult thing about locating this cluster is that it is so unremarkable.  I found Gamma Cyg in the finder (almost straight overhead!) and as it happened all I had to do was swing the Dob down to M29 (it’s less than  2 degrees away from Gamma Cyg). I had to confirm that I was looking at the cluster in Stellarium

I spent about a half an hour looking for M101, a galaxy near the handle of the Big Dipper. I figured I was pointing at it, but the mirror was too dewy….for another night…..