I think the last thread went on far enough to establish that I can now expect to find a globular cluster in the area of M3!
Last night was one of the best in terms of the weather. The first cleardarksky forecast was for better than average conditions and then, for some reason, the cleardarksky forecast for Sunday night was dismal. I decided to wait it out and see and was rewarded with my best viewing so far in my 2+ months of my new hobby. Despite the night glow of the city lights I was able to find M13 with my binoculars - right where it should be. The hard part was trying to get my refractor to point that high. Alex - you're right, I do need to get a 1x finder! It's on my list.
After viewing M3 again, just to be sure it didn't go away, I began my search for M13. At first it was hopelessly vertical for my scope/mount combination. After waiting about an hour, I was finally able to home in on M13. At 28x in my 4" refractor it looked a lot like M3, a dim fuzzy ball. Not much improvement at 58x, just larger. So, not yet having anything inbetween, my next step is 220x (I know, they are on my list too) and what a sight. At first as I was finishing the fine focus I though "just bigger and dimmer." But as my hand left the focuser I was rewarded with resolution of quite a number of individual little pinpoint stars. Perhaps 2-3 dozen. Very pretty to see. Quite delicate but they were distinct even with direct vision. At times they seemed to form patterns, almost like spiral arms, other times they just seemed random. I don't know how much nicer it would be in dark skies, but this was very neat to see.
Hope for more nights like last night.
Last night was one of the best in terms of the weather. The first cleardarksky forecast was for better than average conditions and then, for some reason, the cleardarksky forecast for Sunday night was dismal. I decided to wait it out and see and was rewarded with my best viewing so far in my 2+ months of my new hobby. Despite the night glow of the city lights I was able to find M13 with my binoculars - right where it should be. The hard part was trying to get my refractor to point that high. Alex - you're right, I do need to get a 1x finder! It's on my list.
After viewing M3 again, just to be sure it didn't go away, I began my search for M13. At first it was hopelessly vertical for my scope/mount combination. After waiting about an hour, I was finally able to home in on M13. At 28x in my 4" refractor it looked a lot like M3, a dim fuzzy ball. Not much improvement at 58x, just larger. So, not yet having anything inbetween, my next step is 220x (I know, they are on my list too) and what a sight. At first as I was finishing the fine focus I though "just bigger and dimmer." But as my hand left the focuser I was rewarded with resolution of quite a number of individual little pinpoint stars. Perhaps 2-3 dozen. Very pretty to see. Quite delicate but they were distinct even with direct vision. At times they seemed to form patterns, almost like spiral arms, other times they just seemed random. I don't know how much nicer it would be in dark skies, but this was very neat to see.
Hope for more nights like last night.
