Pushing the limits

Squaredancing was a no-show tonight (there was a county fair going on where the dance should have been) so we ate German food at the Hub along with a nice Dunkel and came home early.  I decided to try pushing the limits of my little ETX (and my eyes) and try for some of the NGC globulars in June's issue of S&T p64.  After I did a two star alignment (it worked first time tonight) on Spica and Antares, I zipped over to NGC5897 in Libra.  There wasn't anything obvious but NGC5897 is pretty dim at 8.5.  The field was pretty empty too but it looked like the area around 5897 according to my Pocket Sky Chart.  There was a little dish antenna grouping of four 8th mag stars with a 5th 'target' that didn't show up in the PSC but it looked like there was a dim fuzzy in between the dish and the target.  Bingo!  Right on ETX.  CdC verified the hit.  Definitely not a 'wow factor' but a tough globular for the ETX anyway. 
Next I headed to 5694.  This is also Caldwell 66 and the ETX was again dead on.  There was a little Z-shaped grouping of four brighter stars that was in the PSC this time and I convinced myself I was able to glimpse a much dimmer fuzzy right where 5694 should be.  Even less of a 'wow' than 5897 but at mag 10.2 an even tougher target for the ETX.  A darker sky might help but my sky is pretty dark.  NGC5634 was not in the ETX's database which was surprising since it was listed as brighter than 5694.
I snagged M53 for sure but nearby NGC5053 was another maybe.  I could occasionally glimpse a fuzzy where it should be with averted vision but then again, I knew where to look and expected to see something there.
I finished up with M4 near Antares and M6 and 7 open clusters.  M6 is delightful like diamond dust on black velvet.  All in all, a good night.  Not too cool and no moon or clouds.  The combination of ETX and PSC worked great once again and I felt more secure about the tripod with the ETX securely bolted to the base this time.  With the battery hanging on its hook though, the assembly is stable as a rock.  I even lightly kicked a leg once or twice with no movement at all.