@mosen regarding the colour, I think it does't really matter, because the needle has two sides. So you still know in which direction it shows. For me red means active. So I would choose red. Anyway, we could use a darker one than that I used on that first shot. That should solve the problem!?

By the way, i mentioned it before, adding a grey circle to the the compass like in your screenshot and in some of your proposals before looks in my eyes much better. Maybe @rinigus wants to use that icon, instead of just showing the needle.