Star Clusters

So last night I looked for some star clusters. I found a couple Open Clusters, M41 & M44, not much to them just an eyepiece full of stars. I've found Globular Clusters to be much more interesting. M3 & M53 both looked like tiny cotton balls when I first spotted them but when I cranked up the magnification they showed swarms of individual stars all packed together, very nice to look at.

While I was out there I thought I'd look for a Galaxy or two. I found the Black Eye galaxy, M64, but couldn't see much detail, just a small blob of light. I tried to find M101 again. I've hunted for this thing many times without much luck. M101 is a magnitude 7.9 Spiral Galaxy close to the handle of the Big Dipper. I've found objects above magnitude 9 so I didn't know why I couldn't find this thing. Well, last night I finally found it and it is way bigger than I expected, way dimmer too. I could just make out a misty patch of light, but I found it none the less and I know what to look for when I get out to a darker site than my light polluted back yard.

Here's a pic of M101 from the Hubble.