To log IMC, you must be both:
- Manipulating the controls by reference to flight instruments, and
- Be without external reference points (that's the natural horizon to us non-lawyer types).
Perhaps a tad misleading there,
Oktas8. Using the word "manipulating" implies hand-flying, but there is no requirement, under the Australian regs to be hand-flying. The aircraft can be on autopilot.
And, there are other "external reference points" besides the natural horizon. For example, stars. If you have stars, or just ONE star in your view, even your peripheral vision, then you have external visual reference points, so cannot log the time as instrument time.