In a message dated 10/24/00 11:39:12 AM Pacific Daylight Time, jdillon@monterey.k12.ca.us writes:
Scanned the sky around and thru Cassiopeia and Perseus. I always go back to the alpha Persei association, it being my first deepsky discovery, two years ago with binocs. Moving thru Cassiopeia, between delta and epsilon Cas, the arm toward Perseus. M103 and NGC 663 were bright along that arm. Seeing was 4/5, transparency was ca 4.5. This was with my old trusty Swift boat-use 7x50's.
Yes! I was out in my (bright) backyard with Professor Plum, my homemade 8" f/7 reflector observing the exact same objects. I often grouse about open clusters, but M103 was quite striking. A bit of a wedge shape, a sprinking of brighter stars (is there a red one in there?) and then dusted with edge of sight sparkles. Quite pretty really. Also bagged NGC 7331. No sign of the Quintet. :-)