IC 418 the spirograph

[Darren Drake]

I went for this the other night in my light polluted back yard and was pleasantly surprised at well well I saw it given my conditions. I was not really able to see the reddish hues that I've seen before in darker skies but still enjoyed the view. What apertures are generally needed to see the red colors for this impressive object? Thanks

[Dragan]

Hey Darren,

I do remember seeing hints of red using Spacks 18" at Green River. It wasn't the brightest but with lower power it was visible.

And welcome to DSF! I was wondering what took you so long!

[Jeff Young]

My colour perception is quite weak; I see a hint of blue or green in 4 or 5 of the brightest planetaries, but that's about it. (16")

IC418.2009.01.28.jpg

[Sue French]

I've logged the nebula as pinkinsh-red through a 130mm at low power and as dusty rose through a 10-inch at low power. In both cases, the color was washed out at high magnifications.

Sue

[Don Pensack]

Interesting. My notes record the planetary as "bluish".

[Sue French]

Don,

I've got one of those, too. Turquoise through a 105mm at 87x. Don't know why the difference.

Sue

[Jimi Lowrey]

In my 48" at 300X to 800X it looks to my eye to be a pale red color. It is a show piece object in the 48 everyone always loves the view and sees it as red, It also has a really faint extended halo.

[stevecoe]

Howdy all;

I never saw any color in 11 inches of aperture with a Nexstar 11. There was a little bit of green in my old 13 inch Newt.

IC 418 Sentinel Nexstar 11 S+T 7/10 80X just seen as PLNNB disk 200X pretty bright, pretty small, round, the stellar nucleus is 11th mag. A grey disk, averted vision makes it larger. 320X shows the disk as very slightly elongated 1.2X1.

Clear skies;
Steve Coe