Blue Bluer and Bluerer

[PSALM19.1 (Shaun)]

Hi all: so you're hunting for ages to find Neptune in your 8"Dob, your neck is starting to kill you because of the angle (and because you are 44) and you are following the advice that Neptune appears "blue" in colour and "you'll know it when you see it"; then you discover that there are literally heaps of "bluey" objects out there and finally you think you've seen Neptune about three times in three different locations....now I'm blue

[SkyWatch (Dean)]

Hi Shaun,

Neptune is a light blue colour, but the easiest way to confirm it is to increase the power a bit. It is around 2.2 arc-secs in diameter, so it shows as a nice circular object under moderate power (say 120-200x). It doesn't look like a star at this power (as long as the seeing is reasonable!).

If you haven't done so already, get a copy of Stellarium (http://www.stellarium.org ) and check out the field. There is nothing near it at the moment that would be a similar colour.

Good luck, and all the best,

Dean

(PS: Only 44! Oh to have a neck that young again!

[sil (Steve)]

44 too, but restricted by the effects of a stroke a couple of years ago so my astronomy is limited. I hunted Neptune with a 4in desktop dob one night. Used a printed sky map plus tablet app to help keep me on track and confirm my star hopping location. Took time and patience but I have to say you will know it when you see it. It stood out as being different to everything else I could see, something dull about it. a beautiful blue colour but not that sparkle of a star. I also sketched stars to help me star hop so I didn't lose my place, start with a star you know and can find easily repeatedly and try to build a star hop route that will get you towards neptune if you get lost. the process helps you adjust to the scale of what you see in the eyepiece and what you see in your star map etc

[PSALM19.1 (Shaun)]

Awesome, thanks guys...I reckon I've probably seen it, but very much depends on conditions I suppose...