[Tropo-Bob (Bob)]

Its not the sexest name to for a planetary, which might explain why I have never looked for it before. It is near Rigel, but just across the boarder in Lepus. I418 is Mag 9.4 and 14'x11" according to my Bright Star Atlas.

The delivery person come with my new "Grab & Go" scope yesterday, so I wanted to see something new rather than just revist all the all known, familiar but pleasant objects.

The planetary was reasonably easy to find, even though my scope does not yet have a finder. It appeared small, but distinctly like a planetary complete with that blue disc effect that is their trademark signature. It was brighter than I expected. I suppose that was because it light come from a smaller-sized planetary than I normally view.

I viewed the Eskimo Nebula afterwards, which appeared much larger, but no brighter. In comparison, the Crab Nebula (M1) looked huge and brighter.

So far the new scope is living up to its hype and I was lucky enough to do some observing on a partly-cloudy night with my new Tak 100D (F7.4).