Hi Ted,

Understood about the ladder...heck, I don't even get on ladders unless I absolutely have to..(got -0- balance..LOL).

Set the scope up tonight by 2000 hrs., but missed seeing the Moon in daylight as it dropped out of my "window". Had some dessert, and went back out about 2230 and found some pretty decent skies. It really didn't get "dark" til about midnight, but the observing was still pretty decent.

Started off going right back to M5, making sure I knew where to find it next time out. Once I find an object, it is again viewed the next session that way it gets memorized as to location. M5 was again very nice, and I was able to resolve a number of the outer stars with averted vision.

Moved on to M3 for a few minutes, and viewed it up to 141x. Still, very difficult to resolve any outer stars even with averted vision.

Had time to kill, so I came in and checked Stellarium to see what was in the area. I saw that Yed Prior was a double-star, but try as I might I couldn't pull the companion star out. Conditions didn't let me go beyond 141x, and I think it might take a bit more in this 102mm refractor to split it. Still, going to try it again another night.

Had to wait quite a while for M12 to enter the 25º window I have to view through, and it finally entered the picture about 0030, along with M10. Really enjoyed these 2 as it was a first time (in the scope) to see them. Both viewed nicely at 141x, and was able to resolve many outer stars of both.

After that I went huntin'..

Swung the scope up to the NE part of Ophiuchus, and found a very nice looking open cluster. Found out once I came in that it was NGC 6633..

, so I logged it as well. (also was my first logged NGC object)

I could see there was much more in that area, but duty calls tomorrow AM, so, I called it a night.

This little refractor just continues to impress the hell out of me, and I am really looking forward to seeing these same objects with a bit more aperture in the future.

Mike