Planetary Nebula I418

[Tropo-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).

[Tinderboxsky]

Sounds like an excellent first light experience for your new scope. I don't recall observing the planetary either. I will have to give it my attention on the next clear night.
So, you have joined to Tak following. I shall be interested to hear further observation reports with it. What mount do you put the scope on to make it your new "grab and go" setup?

[astroron]

Quote)
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.

IC 418 AKA the Spirograph Nebula, is a great object to observe in scopes 20cm and above.
If you have good colour perception you will see it is encircled by a red ring and the center is very bright.
Small telescopes don't do it justice as it needs magnification to bring out it's detail.
The Spirograph planetary nebula and has a very famous Hubble Space Telescope image taken a few years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_418

:thumbsup:Cheers

[bigjoe]

Sounds like a nice grab and go acquisition.

The Eskimo one of my favorites!
Interesting to know how it goes on some doubles , Mars etc..compared to your larger scopes...as it has limited light grasp you'd expect this not to be your best DSO scope.
bigjoe.

[Tropo-Bob]

Thanks Joe,

Regarding doubles, I did obtain nice clean images of Epsilon Canis Major (Adhara) and Zeta, Eta and Sigma Orions. I saw all four stars of Sigma. My only disappointment was when I looked at the colourful double h3945 in Canis Major, the colours were not as contrasting as what can be seen with larger scopes. More aperture does really help to see colour better.

Mars, yes, I am really looking looking forward to being able to take this scope out with little effort to have early-morning looks at Mars, as it grows closer.



[I]IC 418 AKA the Spirograph Nebula, is a great object to observe in scopes 20cm and above.
If you have good colour perception you will see it is encircled by a red ring and the center is very bright.
Small telescopes don't do it justice as it needs magnification to bring out it's detail.
The Spirograph planetary nebula and has a very famous Hubble Space Telescope image taken a few years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_418

Thanks Ron, I will now have to check it out further with my 8" SCT.



Sounds like an excellent first light experience for your new scope. I don't recall observing the planetary either. I will have to give it my attention on the next clear night.
So, you have joined to Tak following. I shall be interested to hear further observation reports with it. What mount do you put the scope on to make it your new "grab and go" setup?

Thanks Steve, I am using an AZ4 mount. Its really light and with it, I can easily point the scope to the Zenith. The AZ4 may not look like much, but I have found it to be excellent with many light refractors.

[bigjoe]

Bob I always find aperture helps with colour contrasts and esp h3945... beautiful in or over 8 inch scope.
The Tak will be great for just that ..grab and go with arguably the best optics money can buy in that size.
PS : DONT forget to treat yourself and others to Gamma Volantis ...shockingly underrated ,as is Theta Indi.
bigjoe.

[Tinderboxsky]

Thank you for your report on this planetary Bob. I had not observed it previously either. I visited it last night in good to excellent transparency and seeing conditions.
As you commented Bob, it is an easy find and star hop. I could just see the faint point of light in my 8X50 finder scope.
At 62X, it was a light blue, obviously non-stellar spot. There seemed to be a very faint hint of nebulosity close by. At 160X, there was an obvious irregularly shaped circular patch which seemed light bluish and quite bright. With averted vision the nebula appeared to snap into clearer shape and definition - a little frustrating as this disappeared when I tried to concentrate on it to find more detail. The nebulosity that seemed to be there at 62X could not be seen.
At 228X, the shape was more defined with the outer rim of the circular nebula appearing slightly brighter. The bright central spot was very clear and well defined.
Scope: Vixen NA140SS on TRex mount and LVW 13,5&3.5 eyepieces.