The Blinking Planetary Nebula.

[cotterless45]

Well placed for darkness in Cygnus.

NGC6826, in the Newtonian a small blue green pn just above an adjacent star.Now use averted vision in a widefield, then look back at the pn. Not only does it disappear, but it blinks at you, wonderful.A bit more mag will give you the central star.

Worth seeking out. Cloud rolled in at just before 1am.

Time for a cup of tea and a slice of cake!

Nick.

[Stu]

Well worth a look, it's a really fun object to observe. Had the pleasure of looking at it through a 15" Obsession once and it's the only object I've really seen strong colour in, looked very green to me.

Stu

[Daniel-K]

yup i love this little neb it takes mag very well its a must see every session

[Double Kick Drum]

Never managed to see a blink but a great planetary nebula none the less.

[Stu]

When you look with averted vision, you see the nebula, when you use direct vision it disappears and you.just see the central star. Do this repeatedly and it appears to blink. It's a fairly strong effect so I'm sure you'll see it

Stu

[assasincz]

I recently observed the Blinking Planetary as well, and my description of it is pretty much exactly the same as yours:

NGC 6826 - The Blinking Planetary (10.0 m, planetary nebula) - Cygnus

This was the last DSO of the night, as at that time, it was past 1:45 AM and with the light flood quickly approaching, I decided to tackle this planetary nebula. I have seen it before with my 4.5" newtonian and it was rather featureless. Precisely why is it called the Blinking Planetary was still a mystery for me. This time though, with my 12" dobsonian, it was a completely different story: Looking at it directly, one can only see its birght core (appearing almost as a single star), but looking away from it, a sharp bright cloud around it presented itself. Looking back at it directly, it disappeared again - this looking there and back kept me entertained for quite some time. Really a magnificent object, I must say. I think the picture below is a really good representative of what I was able to make out visually:

http://www.sciencephoto.com/image/97029/530wm/C0032802-Blinking_Planetary_Nebula-SPL.jpg

Although I am not sure, whether the "blinking" quality referst to what I have described, but I fear not. I should spend more time on this one someday(night) to really enjoy it

[Double Kick Drum]

When you look with averted vision, you see the nebula, when you use direct vision it disappears and you.just see the central star. Do this repeatedly and it appears to blink. It's a fairly strong effect so I'm sure you'll see it

Stu

I think the problem was that I could see the nebula directly. I'll have to try it at different magnifications.

[swamp thing]

I recently observed the Blinking Planetary as well, and my description of it is pretty much exactly the same as yours:

NGC 6826 - The Blinking Planetary (10.0 m, planetary nebula) - Cygnus

This was the last DSO of the night, as at that time, it was past 1:45 AM and with the light flood quickly approaching, I decided to tackle this planetary nebula. I have seen it before with my 4.5" newtonian and it was rather featureless. Precisely why is it called the Blinking Planetary was still a mystery for me. This time though, with my 12" dobsonian, it was a completely different story: Looking at it directly, one can only see its birght core (appearing almost as a single star), but looking away from it, a sharp bright cloud around it presented itself. Looking back at it directly, it disappeared again - this looking there and back kept me entertained for quite some time. Really a magnificent object, I must say. I think the picture below is a really good representative of what I was able to make out visually:

http://www.sciencephoto.com/image/97029/530wm/C0032802-Blinking_Planetary_Nebula-SPL.jpg

Although I am not sure, whether the "blinking" quality referst to what I have described, but I fear not. I should spend more time on this one someday(night) to really enjoy it

Strange, I always find the blinking effect works better in small apertures.

I've observed the blinking effect through a 4.5" newt, a 4" and 5" frac but when using my 10" and 16" Dobs the blinking effect seemed to lessen as direct viewing of the neb became possible.

I shall have another look and check my findings.

[Stu]

It is strange. I found the blinking very obvious in a 15" at a reasonably dark site. Looked very green to me too.

Stu

[swamp thing]

I just realised I was using filters in my Dobs. I just re-read my log.

ignore me. Sorry!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice planetary indeed. Got this last year. The blinking effect was quite distinct

[assasincz]

Strange, I always find the blinking effect works better in small apertures.

Good job that I have two scopes, a 12" dob and a 4.5" newtonian - you, sir, have managed to plant a though on comparing the views of the Blinking Planetary through the two scopes into my mind - and now, it is on my "to-do" list. I will attempt to observe the Blinking Planetary using the same eyepiece (Hyperion Zoom) so I can use roughly the same magnifications to give me similar views and will report back (hopefully soon) with descriptive results.

[Austin]

Great little P.N! Daniel K and I were observing in Delamere and had a wee hop to it ourselves last saturday.

[Admiral Crispy]

Yes, it is very nice. I even tried it with my o-IIII filter, and it looked even more distinct. The blinking effect is distinct, but I will be honest. And say that using averted vision and the direct vision seems to make a lot of objects in my scope blink, so to speak!