Cats Eye Nebula

[PaulM]

On Saturday last I had nice clear skies and spent a good view hours observing and went searching for the Cats Eye Nebula for the first time in Draco

Starting with the 24mm Meade I initially didn't see it as it resembled a green\blue star

Moving onto the the 15mm and then 8mm EPs it revealed some structure - a bright core and a green\blue halo - very striking to look at and I preferred the view without the OIII filter as it lost its striking color through the filter

Very nice DSO to observe and would recommend hunting it out

[Paul67]

Sounds good Paul, is this a planetary nebula?

[Stu]

Nice one Paul. @Paul67 yes it is a planetary Nebula, easy tonmis at low power but as PaulM has described, great at higher powers

[Merlin66]

An easy an effective way of picking out PN from the background Stars is to use a simple dispersion 60 deg prism between the eyepiece and the eye.

A PN will show a steady image, whereas the stars will be dispersed into short spectra.

[swamp thing]

7 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

An easy an effective way of picking out PN from the background Stars is to use a simple dispersion 60 deg prism between the eyepiece and the eye.

A PN will show a steady image, whereas the stars will be dispersed into short spectra.

Or "blink" an O-III filter over the eye lens that can also help find the little critters 

 

[Eastman]

On ‎08‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 15:01, PaulM said:

Very nice DSO to observe and would recommend hunting it out

Nice one, successful at the first attempt?

It's on my list for a long time, I find it very hard to find. Not been successfull yet, but I keep trying.

 

[niallk]

Nice one! The Cat's Eye is a great target - I find lots of mag helps eg 330x or more, and I use an O-III too with my 15".  On good nights, I start to detect hints ofg some inner detail: two ovals at right angles to each other.  This is on the limits of visibility from my back garden- would love to catch it from truly dark skies

[Saganite]

A lovely target Paul.

I saw this Neb for the first time a couple of years ago at Kelling , through a friend's 18" Dob. It was a spectacular sight and such a vivid blue.

[estwing]

Certainly is a great target,congrats.

[MarsG76]

Did you try it with a UHC filter?

 

[PaulM]

Had another look at this last night and managed to get an image through my Samsung S8

[niallk]

Lovely phone pic!  Must try that