The Blue Snowball; ngc 7662.

[cotterless45]

Up high just now, quite easy to find, looks like a big blue star at x60.It was a beautiful blue colour at x120. You can go to x400.

It's pretty small though, smaller than M57, but there's that colour.

It's worth seeking out and using a high mag ep on.

Nearby is ngc7331,7335,7336,7340and 7337, a nice group of galaxies.

A bit to the right of Enif is M15 . Nice globular which holds Phase 1 , one of only three planetary nebs. found in glob. clusters.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I got the Blue Snowball last summer using Olly Penrice's 20" dob. Really nice sight! I later got it from home with the C8. The colour is really striking. It put me in mind of the colour of Uranus and Neptune.

[Nexus 6]

Agree it does have a very distinct colour, is always worth a look on clear nights

[dark star]

I have had no luck at all finding this, with a 6 inch or 10 inch telescope. Probably because I live on the outskirts of light polluted London.

Does anyone have any advice as to how to find it by star hopping in light polluted skies?

Any good finder charts on- line?

Regards

David

[umadog]

I use the fairly bright stars kappa, lambda, and iota Andromedae. Along with the snowball, these three stars form what looks (to me) like a little bowl. By eye you can, of course, see only the three stars but it's easy to picture where the snowball should lie in this asterism. The faintest of the three stars is mag 4.25, so hopefully you can see all three. You Stellerium to find the stars if your atlas doesn't label them.

[dark star]

I had another try tonight, no luck! I can see the three stars, I am pretty sure I have the right ones, with just my eyes and binoculars. I use Stellerium.

The problem I find is aiming a large (250mm) equatorial mounted reflector at something high up in the sky. Plus, the view is of course reversed in a reflector.

In the finder scope obviously I can't see which 'star' is the Blue Snowball.

Also, when I thought I might be getting somewhere thin cloud drifted across my view!

I will keep trying, it took me a long time to find M57 and M27, but I succeeded in the end.

I also now have a mount with proper setting circles, so I will try getting accurately polar aligned and figure out how to use them.

David

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I had another try tonight, no luck! I can see the three stars, I am pretty sure I have the right ones, with just my eyes and binoculars. I use Stellerium.

The problem I find is aiming a large (250mm) equatorial mounted reflector at something high up in the sky. Plus, the view is of course reversed in a reflector.

In the finder scope obviously I can't see which 'star' is the Blue Snowball.

Also, when I thought I might be getting somewhere thin cloud drifted across my view!

I will keep trying, it took me a long time to find M57 and M27, but I succeeded in the end.

I also now have a mount with proper setting circles, so I will try getting accurately polar aligned and figure out how to use them.

David

I would get a right-angle, correct image (RACI) finder for this kind of work. This is how I have been able to find much more stuff than with the regular finder. The eyepiece plug in of stellarium is able to show the view aligned with the EQ axes, and inverted image (also for upright but mirror image as with star diagonals). This is also very helpful in getting to the right area.

[assasincz]

Even with 4.5" scope, the Blue Snowball nebula is rather pleasing to the eye, especially as it exhibits - in DSOs so uncommon - colour. It is very tricky to find, I admit, but once you have found it with low power magnification, it really is a hard one to miss. It actually skrikingly resembles Uranus in a way - until you magnify it of course

[AstroDee]

I seen the blue snowball nebula for the first time last night through the 150 dob, and its a pleasing sight at 60 times mag. It really does look just like a blue snowball.

[Double Kick Drum]

I seen the blue snowball nebula for the first time last night through the 150 dob, and its a pleasing sight at 60 times mag. It really does look just like a blue snowball.

A really pleasing addition - I managed it for the first time last month.

Definitely one to go back to.

[DarkerSky]

The Blue Snowball is a real favourite - plus it's the only object that my wife has gone 'wow' at through the scope! She's hard to please!!

[Sam]

The blue snowball, I reckon, is one of the best DSOs to observe, mainly because it has such a distinctive colour.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

NGC 1535 in Eridanus is another very nice one. It has not got as vivid a colour as the Blue Snowball, but has a very distinct structure, with an inner, bright area, and a fainter outer shell. The latter was even visible in my C8 when it was low in the sky.

[rory]

id like to have a punt at the blue snowball. id expect id need quite dark sky with only 90mm ap ? we'll see. i'll check out ngc1535 while im at it. i believe thats a t.l.a.o target.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Gven that it is one of the brightest planetary nebulae at mag 8.3, I think a 90 would do quite easily (have not tried with my 80mm yet). Remember that this needs quite a bit of magnification, because it is a very small nebula compared to the likes of M42 etc. The surface brightness is very high (hence the visible colour).

[todd8137]

hi never seen it yet,but will have a look for it ,i could never find the crab neb from the shed,but found it the other day and that takes power rather well i must find this but the cloud is over the pennines for the next couple a days

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The Blue Snowball is a lot easier than the Crab Nebula

[rory]

The Blue Snowball is a lot easier than the Crab Nebula

well thats encouraging at least, because that m1 tested my patience at times .

[Bart]

If I'm right, its very small, quite stellar, except for the colour. I'm sure some of you guys have had it in your FOV but just haven't realised it.

Bart

[acey]

Yes, very easy object if you know where to look: at low power it's star-like. Just be sure to get out early in the evening before it sinks too low in the sky, it was better placed in November (when this thread was started).

[rory]

been out early tonight (before clouds called a halt) but no joy this time. my worry is with my kit ive only got a max of x62 mag at the moment.

ive left the scope out incase clouds disperse.

[Double Kick Drum]

62x magnification should be enough to identify it, though it will be small.

The difficulty is finding it.

Good luck.

[Crimson Sunset]

I got it tonight with my 250px at 120x magnification but it didnt really display any colour, i think my sky is too polluted

Hopefully a revisit with a more powerful eyepiece will show that up better.

[teh_feckerer]

Up high just now, quite easy to find, looks like a big blue star at x60.It was a beautiful blue colour at x120. You can go to x400.

It's pretty small though, smaller than M57, but there's that colour.

It's worth seeking out and using a high mag ep on.

Nearby is ngc7331,7335,7336,7340and 7337, a nice group of galaxies.

A bit to the right of Enif is M15 . Nice globular which holds Phase 1 , one of only three planetary nebs. found in glob. clusters.

This thread inspired me and a friend to find this one night when we met up. Was surprised how small it was, and amazed at how bright it was. Took a while to find because we were looking for something a lil bigger, but still well worth the view.

Thanks

[andrew63]

Also inspired by this thread, thought I'd have a look myself this evening. Out about 7ish, and the area is starting to get a bit lower in the west with a slight haze.

In my 4"refractor at 68x it was not quite stellar - in fact it could best be described as a slightly out of focus star. At 102x now it is very obvious as a bright patch and scale wise about Jupiter size. In a small telescope i would not call in 'blue' though - sort of off white to me. I guess that's where the advantage of aperture comes in in observing the more subtle things.

It's a fine sight though, and for those having trouble finding it it's only a couple of degrees from Iota Andromeda so if you scan that area with a mag of 80x or above it should stand out OK - much lower and it will look like a star and it is surprisingly bright!

andrew