I am always reminded of John Herschel's third observing note about 3532 when I look at it: "A glorious cluster of immense magnitude, being at least 2 fields in extent every way. The stars are 8, 9, 10 and 11 mag, but chiefly 10th magnitude, of which there must be at least 200. It is the most brilliant object of the kind I have ever seen."
I think my best ever view of it was in Doug's NP-101, with a very flat three-degree field. I can just imagine how effective it would be with four degrees.
S-S now has 127mm F/5.5 doublets for a mere US$119. Needless to say, they released these right after I bought mine. Of course, I would need to find a bigger wine bottle to roll the tube around.
