NGC 6543 - the cat's eye nebula - 8.75 inchreflector
NGC 6543 was immediately recognisable from the surrounding field stars at low-power due to its intensely blue green colour; also it was larger than surrounding stars at low magnification. At 204x magnification it was about 30” in diameter and at first glance looked to have sharply defined edges though with careful viewing showed the edges to be ill-defined, also at high power a faint haze surrounded the nebula and careful viewing at 288x showed an irregular structure along its edges. The nebula was of an even brightness and had the most prominent blue green colour, the central star of magnitude 11.3 was visible although fleetingly using averted vision only with 288x. Nebula filters only made the nebula brighter in fact they seem to overpower it, its surface brightness is already so high that the faint haze surrounding it may have been slightly brighter.