Cat's Eye Vs The Eskimo

[Mamsoth]

Hi guys, it's been a couple of years since I've observed ngc 6543 visually, recently I've been imaging ngc 2392 and was wondering how bright the cat's eye is relative to the eskimo? The SAC deepsky list has the cat's eye with a surface brightness of mag 5 while it has the eskimo at 6.8. However, over the years I have found that the list is not 100% reliable.

Will the cat's eye appear brighter on my ccd than the eskimo?

[johnh]

Yes it will, CE is 20" diameter like a fuzzy star while Eskimo is 45" with more even brightness away from centre star. You will need a longer fl for CE because its so small (23x17"), its down to integated mag over whole area as both have 11th mag centre stars. I also find different mags in different catalogues and just take it as a guide. Cat's Eye is an absolute gem.

John.

[Mamsoth]

Cheers John