Jupiter and NGC 7789 with the 6"

Early this morning I was out with the 6" achromat mounted on the DS-10. This was first light with the 6" on this mount. Jupiter was high in the sky. At 240x, I was able to tell which moon was Ganymede. It is noticeably larger than the other moons. The planet sported cloud bands and much other detail in and around the bands, of course, and a nice dark spot in the southernmost, lighter equatorial band. The Great Red Spot was round the back of the planet and not visible.

I also enjoyed viewing the Ring Nebula, double star Eta Cassiopeiae, and Albireo. This was a quick session, but I ended up viewing NGC 7789 in Cassiopeia. This is a large open cluster whose brightest stars are about 11th magnitude. This makes the cluster a challenge for a small, backyard city scope. I have seen the cluster in an 8" reflector I owned, and this morning I found it in the 6" achromat. It's a nice view. The cluster's brighter stars were scattered over a wide part of the view at 35x, tiny points of light sitting quietly together. The cluster is large enough to have lasted 1.6 billion years. A photo much deeper than I could see with my eyes this morning is found here.

The DS-10 mount handled the 6" just fine. Tracking was a bit slow at times, perhaps because of RA clutch slippage, but I am working on the balance and other things to get that fixed.