With a hospital a mile away and schools all around, my northern sky here is worse than it was in Austin. Except for finding Messier 81 three times in ten or more attempts, nothing near the Big Dipper is available even with the aid of a computerized “go to” mount. However, being out at 5:00 AM, I found Cassiopeia readily and was pretty sure that I could make out the smudge of Messier 31 off the sharper vertex of the W. And I did.
This morning, between 5:18 and 5:38, I viewed the Andromeda Galaxy with an Explore Scientific 102-mm f/6.47 achromatic doublet refractor because that one was closest to the door. The oculars were a 14-mm Meade 4000 series 82-degree, a Nagler 7-mm Ploessl, both of those with and without a basic GSO 2X Barlow. So, variously 47X and 94X with more or less eye relief.
If I did not know in advance what I was looking at, I would have classified this as a globular cluster. There was some shape to the smear, longer than round, with some central sparkle. It seemed to have a halo but that could have been atmospheric effect. The centrality of the bright core came out with averted vision, looking away left, right, up, and down, changing between left and right eyes. Several times, I moved a bright star to the center and refocused more tightly. Overall, it was more like Messier 4 which is also spread out and not like Messier 22 which is a tighter circle of light.
Addendum: 02 September 2022. Orion 70mm refractor with Meade 25 mm Modified Achromat and with Celestron 32 mm Super Ploessel Wide Angle. Nominally "clear" skies but with much residual moisture from current rainy season. It took some doing from 0340 to 0420. I found M31 naked eye and with Bushnell 12x42 binocular and then needed several attempts to locate it with the telescope. As above but not as large, it looked like a globular cluster, brighter in the circular center with indistinct fading left and right.
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