Globular Cluster M30

Globular cluster Messier 30, at about 26,000 light years distance and about 90 light years across, took a few nights to get around to looking at but I finally snagged it around midnight tonight. Capricornus was fairly high in the sky and M30 is just below it on a line between Jupiter and Eps Cap. It's fairly bright and I was just able to make it out in my 9x50 finder. It was a nice dense globular in my 8" at 40x. I tried for Pal12, another globular which is nearby but couldn't make it out. I took my 7x50's out earlier to see if I could recognize Barnard's E, a dark nebula in Cygnus. It's easy to find, near Tarazed in Aquila, but harder to recognize as an E. I was able to see dark patches over that area of the milky way and once convinced myself that I saw a rather fat E but it was a stretch. Good old familiar Coathanger cluster was also nearby and I peeked at it several times. I followed Bakich's directions for finding it from Vulpecula which is closer but I liked hopping from Altair better. I thought I was going to get a glimpse at the Andromeda galaxy tonight but it stayed behind the tree while I was out. Pegasus was starting to rise above the tree though and it won't be long before Andromeda appears again. Jupiter was a fine sight as usual with Io hidden in its glare. I thought I saw a tiny shadow but couldn't be sure. To complete the evening I even downloaded the DDE code for CDC and tried out/modified the demo code to control CDC via DDE. I may have to work out some spreadsheet drivers for CDC.