Hi Jim (and David who also replied), M-13 it is. One of the editors at S&T suggested I had the image flipped. He was right. I also took both slides apart and cleaned the glass and the film (remember film?) and when I did that many of the "stars" that had been confusing me disappeared. Here's the "before": http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/mystery.jpg And after cleaning and the image flipped: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/temp/mysterysolved.jpg Many thanks, patrick On 04 Mar 2009, at 06:41, Jim Gibson wrote:
Because you imaged M57 I would say that the candidate may be close by which means M13 is the most likely candidate. But I also checked out M56, M29. I would say of the 2 only M29 is could be a possible because it has TYC3152-182-1 and TYC3152-146-1 with TYC3152-350-1 in the same relative position as your bright start at 7 o’clock and those other 2 bright stars at about the 9:30 position. I would say that star at 7 o’clock would be about 15’ from the cluster. Not convinced I looked on.
M39 was too big. M2 is beautiful but I couldn’t match any stars. M15 looks like another candidate to me except the one bright star is too close to M15compared to the other star pair.
M71…uh I don’t think so. M10 another pretty cluster, but I don’t see those reference stars.
OK M14 looks pretty good. TYC5084-89-1 is 14’ 30’ from M14 and TYC5084-230-1 with TYC5084-93-1 are in the right relative position… maybe a little off.
I think it is M13. Even though the reference stars are only about 10’ away I will stick with M13. I mean, come on, if you are in that part of the sky where M57 is what else would come to the mind of the average citizen? M13! I gave you an out there. You are certainly above average, and no telling what can go through the mind of any wild astronomer with a new camera. ;>)