I don't know about y'all, but I got outside tonight....

I made a run at my globular list, generated from SkyTools. I really like
that software. I put the 12" just outside the sliding glass door off my den
and was able to go in and out all night. From that position I can see from
the zenith down to the bottom of the Sagittarius Teapot.

Man, am I happy with myself!! I bagged Palomar 8!! Higher up between Cap
and Aql I failed to find Palomar 11 and by the time I got around to looking
at M30, I was simply getting too tired and didn't try for Palomar 12.
However, for the first time, I saw all of the "bottom" globs in Sagittarius
in one session, including the NGC's to mag 10. I simply can't get that low
but a few times a year, and early September is one of them. M55 was a
wonderful surprise, being larger than I remembered. Seems almost as large in
area as M22, but not as bright.

M30 is an interesting glob with strings of stars making straight lines
protruding out of the core, like legs on a bug. O'Meara's drawing has it
almost right, but he's far too much into a nebulous appearance, compared to
the stars I was seeing due to the larger aperture. Just look at his picture
on page 109 (Messier book of course) and where he has fingers coming out of
the nebulous patch, picture strings of stars nearly evenly spaced, and fill
in the core with stars as well. Pretty neat looking.

Too bad he didn't do that book with a 12" scope. :-)

The list: NGC 6652, 6624, 6522, 6528, 6558, 6638, 6642, 6712; M54, 70, 22,
28, 55, 9, 19, 75, and 30. That's only a small dent in the list, which
contains 67 globs, three of which are Palomar.

Anyway, I could have stayed out their all night, but sleep beckons.

Did I mention that I really like SkyTools?

See ya 'round,
Stephen