NGC 6210 is blue!

[DarkerSky]

Got a brief look at NGC 6210 planetary nebula in Hercules last night with my 12". It appeared as a spectacular (albeit tiny) disc of blue light with fuzzy edges. Not as a blue as the Blue Snowball, but really quite a stunner, and the colour was something I didn't expect.

Only got about 5 minutes on it, so need to go back and take a proper look !

[Ursa Major]

I haven’t seen this yet. I expect it will seem even more blue in your 16 inch (I wish I had a scope that big:()

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Sounds great. I spotted the nebula in my sky atlas, so now I am curious what my 8" will show. I would have thought the moonlight would interfere, but apparently this has a high surface brightness.

[Nexus 6]

What a coincidence Seb I have just posted a comment on the Blue Snowball on a different thread

http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-deep-sky/138549-favourite-non-messier-objects.html

thanks for the post on this object

[Hypernova]

Looks like it will be agood one to hold out for once it rises high enough and the moon get out of the way later in the month. So far the Blue Snowball is the only DSO (aside from coloured doubles) that I have managed to see any form of colour in.

[DarkerSky]

Sounds great. I spotted the nebula in my sky atlas, so now I am curious what my 8" will show. I would have thought the moonlight would interfere, but apparently this has a high surface brightness.

yes, it does have high sbr. I was really quite surprised how obvious it was compared to the field stars. It really holds its own. Would be good to hear what you make of it.

[DarkerSky]

Looks like it will be agood one to hold out for once it rises high enough and the moon get out of the way later in the month. So far the Blue Snowball is the only DSO (aside from coloured doubles) that I have managed to see any form of colour in.

Would be good to hear what you make of it Tom

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

yes, it does have high sbr. I was really quite surprised how obvious it was compared to the field stars. It really holds its own. Would be good to hear what you make of it.

Next dark time I will be down-under (in Sydney, for work (tough, but someone has got to do it )). I will just have the 80mm APO as companion, so unless I can borrow a bigger scope there, I might have to wait a bit. Should be able to see Omega Cen and other southern goodies though

[Talitha]

So far the Blue Snowball is the only DSO (aside from coloured doubles) that I have managed to see any form of colour in.

Have you tried NGC 3242? It's the Ghost of Jupiter planetary nebula in Hydra... quite a lovely shade of blue. Although a bit low in the sky, it has a fairly good surface brightness and is quite large, too (40" compared to the Blue Snowball's 17").

[waccoo]

This was part of the Urban Astronomy List. I had little trouble finding it from my backyard 2 summers ago. A great looking planetary.

As for 3242, if you can catch it on a still night, you should easily see the internal structure of it. 3242 was the first object I found with my first scope using the star chart from the Sky and Telescope. It's a beauty!

[Hypernova]

I went out last night with the dob and this planetary was on my list to observe.

It was around 11:30 when I got it into the dob, it looked like any PN should, a small fuzzy "star" that wouldn't focus. It was similar to many others that I have seen, it looked to be around the same size as IC 3568 and NGC 7662, looked nearly stellar at lower magnifications but it became more apparent to be the PN at 120x or so. I couldn't see any colour at all, just the same old grey, it might have been because I wasn't properly dark adapted due the neighbour's bathroom light being left on The view was best a 200x with the UHC filter being used, more contrasty obvious.

I will try again tonight to see if I can get a better view.