blue snowball- should I be able to see it?

[sunshine185]

I know the sky around Oldham is bad but should the blue snowball still be visible in a 10" dob? I failed miserably in the 4 hours I was out last night although I found many more beautiful objects.

[swamp thing]

Yes, easily within the grasp of a 10" newt. You'll get the colour easily too.

[rory]

i managed it with my 8" the other night. a out of focus star with a blue hint to it. its not big though.

[sunshine185]

Thnx guys, I had skEye but it wasn't listed on there so was using astro tools to get the coordinates, I probably didn't set it up right. Just bought skEye pro do hopefully I'll have more luck next time out, although last night will take some beating, it was fantastically clear here.

[Moonshane]

you should be able to see it for sure. it's an easy star hop from Mirach, more or less in a straight line from Mirach woth M31 about a third of the way along the hop. the three stars Lambda, Kappa and Iota should be obvious in the finder. I'd expect it to be obvious at about 100x or even less.

[John]

I've been able to see it quite well with my 4.7 inch refractor over the past few nights so your 10" should pick it up easily. I found the best view was at 150x - it's quite a small object. You can tell it's not stellar with less power than this though.

With my smallish aperture refractor the blue tint was very subtle at best. Looking forward to viewing this object with my 10" newtonian at the next opportunity

[Tinker1947]

This is it, just a little blue ball, not a lot bigger than a bright star.......

[Daff]

picture is very like the view I had.

[sunshine185]

Damn clouds have arrived so the hunt will have to wait.

[Ganymede12]

Would it be a stretch to see the blue snowball in my 70mm refractor?

[John]

Would it be a stretch to see the blue snowball in my 70mm refractor?

On a dark night, it should be possible I would think.

[Ganymede12]

Where is it and does it have an NGC number?

[Bart]

Sunshine

This took me a while with my 10". I kept mistaking it for a star. Be careful where you know you should be. I've no doubt you've seen it, you just haven't recognised it. Look for the subtle colour.

Barry

[msh1]

ngc7662 according to google

[LukeSkywatcher]

Would it be a stretch to see the blue snowball in my 70mm refractor?

It would most likely just look like a pale blue star in a 70mm scope.

I have never seen it myself, but looking online at images of it, it really only starts to show detail in scopes over 12".

Other then this it appears as a bright blue star.

[LukeSkywatcher]

This is it, just a little blue ball, not a lot bigger than a bright star.......

If i saw this in my scope, i would easily mistake it for a planet (Uranus or Neptune).

[rory]

i first seen it with my old 90mm refractor. it become obvious when the stars are in focus and stellar like with one looking fuzzy. but thats all you'll have to recognise it. i dont recall much in the way of colour with small aperture. but a moonless night id say its doable imo.

[Moonshane]

just looked now (although to be fair with the 16"). even at around 100x it's not at all star like and very obviously 'something unusual'.

[sunshine185]

I think I must have been looking in the wrong place so will have another go next chance I get. Which mag would be better, 96x, 120x or 210x? These are the only mags I can do.

[Tinker1947]

Use a Low (mm) EP to find it then go to a Higher(mm) as conditions allow.....in your case start with the 96x...

[bullettooth]

i spotted it the other night in my little scope and it looked like a blue-ish/green coloured star. was pretty nice against the not so bright stars around it. would be easy to miss it tho, i had to double check with my sky atlas to make sure.

[Moonshane]

use your lowest power - you'll easily see it at 96x as a large blue fuzzy blob.

[sunshine185]

Got it! Also got the blinking nebula ( I think, didn't look blinking to me )

[Moonshane]

great stuff - well done. the blinking nebula shows as a star only when you look at it and when you look away, averted vision makes it puff out like a ball of fuzz.