2025-06-18

• Condition: VG5
• Location: Home, Spearfish: 44.49, -103.87

Thankful to be observing again. Now that Open Cluster targets are back on my list, I decided to attempt one that is a little more difficult, Tr 26. I’ve been picking off the easier Open Clusters from challenge list and I need to start getting acclimated to finding and observing the more challenging targets.

Tr 26 did not appear in my field atlas so before heading out I had to find it in Uranometria 2000.

11:03PM

• Target: Tr 26, Cr 331
• Const: Ophiuchus
• RaDec: 17h28m -29.29
• Type: Open Cluster
• Scope: AT102ED
• Class: III 2 p
• Setting: 110x

Took quite a while to find. I ended up panning around to the N of 45 Ophiuchi for some close to 30 minutes, trying to see something that resembled a cluster. I ended up giving up and attempting NGC 6383, only to find that it was too low on the horizon and covered by some bushes (I’ll probably have to make a trip to to Terry Peak soon for some of these low targets).

I came back to give Tr 26 a second attempt. Still not confident that my view in the FoV was actually Tr 26 I took a sketch of what I saw and suspected could be a cluster. I was able to compare the sketch with images of Tr 26 to confirm the observation.