Well it's been a few days since I first laid eyes on Andromeda and my eyes have finally recovered. If there is one thing I've learned thus far about this whole astronomy thing it's that faint blobs of whitish gray are of consequence. The more I want to achieve this clarity of recognizable celestial bodies, the more my eyes water. This is just how it has to be right now in this light polluted area.
So for the past few days I've bounced between the equally difficult Ring Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy. I can locate them both in about 30 seconds. This is quite a change from my initial fumblings. I feel that I'm starting to get the hang of my telescope. I've calibrated the telescope sight and I whip my eyepieces in and out depending on the need. I don't even bother using the set screws.
Recently I purchased a Barlow of which I have mixed feelings. Sure it's nice to affectively double the magnification but for these deep space objects it's reduced the amount of light enough to make them all but unobservable. I feel like this thing will be best used in a very dark sky.
Tonight I finally got my act together and found the Hercules Cluster. It's a group of 200 galaxies that looks like.. a whitish gray blob. I didn't spend a lot of time on this one as we were into the morning.
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