M53 and M64 nailed

Another dark night and two more Messier objects nabbed. This time I found a nice globular cluster and the Blackeye Galaxy in Coma Berenices. M53 was easy as it is quite close to alpha com. A little 'flyswatter' asterism helps to pin it down. The cluster was a fairly bright fuzzball in my 25mm ep. Occasional pinpoints could be seen in it. M64 was a bit harder but not too bad. One hop to find 35 39 and 40 com and M64 is in between 35 and a group of three 7th mag stars including SAO 82591. Its an elongated fuzzball in my 25mm ep with a hint of a dark spot just off center. It was a nice dark night and fairly warm for a change with a clear view of Virgo off in the ESE. My neighbor's yard light is pretty annoying though.
Last night was cold but clear and I was able to nab M101, a large irregular nebulus galaxy in Ursa Major. Saturn was high over the house and heat waves made it hard to see anything there. Only saw two of its moons.

Back in Rolla

Got back to Rolla tuesday evening after a week on the road via Guadalupe State Park in Texas Hill country, Gunbarrel City, Natchez Trace, Mary Ann's, and home. It's been raining since then but cleared off awhile tonight so I checked out the dob in some pretty dark skies. Even with an almost quarter moon the seeing was pretty good. I used Sirius to measure my finder's fov. It took 10 min 40 sec for sirius to drift from center to edge which comes to about 5 degrees. The 25mm was shorter at 144 sec for half field or about 1 degree. This is what I've been estimating it at. While looking at Sirius, I checked out M41 again. The background seemed almost solid with dim stars and the visible ones were quite colorful. While I was admiring it, a satellite zipped through the field. How neat! I then tried for M81 and 82 in Ursa Major. No cigar although I was close. I'm still not feeling well and clouds were moving in so I gave it up for the night. It was just enough to whet my appetite!