Tonight I started observing for the Astronomical League's Globular Cluster Observing Club. I targeted a handful of GC's in Hercules, Lyra, Delphinus, Sagitta and Aquila to start off with. All of these are high in the sky this month. The GC Club requires fairly extensive observations, thorough descriptions, estimating concentration class, and some of the objects are difficult to find.

10" f4.7 Reflector | 20mm eyepiece (60x) | 9mm eyepiece (133x)

• NGC 6205 / M13 : Large and clear. With the 20mm eyepiece there is a well defined core of stars with many outlying stars branching out from it. It nearly fills the view with the 9mm eyepiece, and the outreaching legs of stars are much clearer.


• NGC 6341 / M92 : Located with the 20mm eyepiece and observed with the 9mm eyepiece. This cluster appears a bit oval, with a well-defined core and sizable halo of stars. Some of the outlying stars run in short serpentine patterns.


• NGC 6229 : Located with the 20mm eyepiece as a faint fuzzy spot. With the 9mm eyepiece it is still faint and diffuse. The core is well-defined but even with averted vision and a long stare, no individual stars are discernable in the core.


• NGC 6779 / M56 : Located with the 20mm eyepiece. Viewed with the 9mm eyepiece, it is small but clear. Stars seem evenly distributed with only the merest congregation at the center. There are a number of outlying stars distributed around it.


• NGC 7006 : This one was a challenge to track down, star hopping with the 20mm eyepiece. With the 9mm eyepiece it is very small and dim with a large core of stars and a barely discernible, thin halo of outlying stars.


• NGC 6934 : Located with the 20mm eyepiece. The 9mm eyepiece reveals a dense cluster with an even distribution. The core is large so that it takes up almost the entire span of the cluster, leaving a very thin diffusion of stars on the edge. One defining feature is a bright star just on the edge of one side. I don't know if this star is part of the cluster, or in front of it.


• NGC 6838 / M71 : Tracked down by star hopping with the 20mm eyepiece. Using the 9mm eyepiece, M71 appears more like an open cluster than a globular, with a roughly arrowhead shape. Though small, individual stars are reasonably clear.


• NGC 6960 : Much to my surprise, I landed on this one on the first try, hopping from d Aql with the 20mm eyepiece. With the 9mm eyepiece I see a faint, fuzzy ball with no real detail.

I spent some time also looking at Jupiter, which was bright and clear with 4 moons visible - two to each side. We saw half a dozen satellites, one of which passed through Cygnus in a direct line from head to tail and one which winked in and out of sight, and must have been rotating or tumbling.

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