In early September, on a Saturday near the new moon, the skies cleared off and water vapor was down to an acceptable level. I didn't get the camera working until quite late and did not spend much time imaging, but towards the end of the session I turned the camera on M29. This image is about 10 minutes worth of unguided 4-second exposures with the DSI Pro through the R135S. Surely it would be better in color. I will be trying that, soon (though maybe not on this cluster).
M29 is called "M29" because it is #29 in Messier's catalogue of things that might look like comets but are not (he wanted a checklist to avoid mistaking a non-comet for a comet). M29's appearance always confused me until last night, because it could never be mistaken for a comet, I thought; it is quite obviously a small group of stars. But last night I saw M29 in my 50mm finderscope. Sure enough, it looked like a patch of fuzz, perhaps a possible comet. Of course, through the much larger R135S, as in the image, one would never think that.
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