Start by finding the Summer Triangle, which consists of the three of the brightest stars in the sky--Vega, Deneb, and Altair. The Summer Triangle is high overhead throughout the summer, and it sinks lower in the west as fall progresses.
For this star hop, start from Deneb, the first-magnitude star that forms the tail of Cygnus, the swan (or if you visualize the brightest stars of Cygnus as a cross shape, Deneb is at the top of the cross).
From Deneb, look to the southwest for Sadr, the magnitude 2 star at the center of the Cygnus cross shape. M29 is less than 2 degrees south of Sadr, and it should be easy to spot in a telescope with a wide-field eyepiece.
