In a small telescope it appears as small, oval disk that bears a close resemblance to Jupiter (hence the name).  It was H. Smyth who first noted this resemblance.  Like most bright planetary nebulae, the Ghost appears pale blue or green to the eyes of most observers.

In my 6-inch it appears as an oblong disc of unusually high surface brightness and sharp, well defined edges.

For those with access to larger-aperture instruments, NGC 3242 has an abundance of delightful detail in store.  Burnham wrote, "There is a bright, strongly elliptical inner ring which strikingly resembles the outline of a human eye; this feature measures 26" x 16" and is oriented southeast to northwest."  The central star is about 12th magnitude and sits right at the center of the elongated inner ring, completing the "Eye",  another apt name for this wonderful object.  The HST image at the top of the page shows this inner ring quite well.  Of course, don't expect this level of detail in the eyepiece!

I observed NGC 3242 in my 18-inch Dob in February 2000. Here are my notes from that session:

At 425x The Ghost took on an appearance quite similar to that of NGC 1535 (Cleopatra's Eye) and NGC 2392 (The Eskimo).  Once again I found myself looking at a large oval with a bright, elongated ring surrounding the central star.  I'm always struck by how sharp the outer edges of this one are.  The surface brightness of this planetary is higher than the other two; the inner-ring detail was not quite as obvious as that of NGC 1535, but much more easily visible than that of the Eskimo.  This is one of those objects worth returning to again and again, regardless of the instrument.

This image from the DSS shows a 20' x' 20' field. North is down and east is to the right.

The view in a 6-inch at 50x. North is down, east is right.