Eric I'm glad to hear you conquered the star hop to the Blue Planetary.
I have some personal history with that object, and I know how frustrating / satisfying an object it can be to search for.
When I started out in practical stargazing (near 2 years ago) I pretty much knew only Crux & Orion by sight, so I very slowly learned to star hop around from those known markers.
First thing I learned to do was star hop to Omega Centauri - until I realised it was a naked eye object anyway, but I'd been steadfastly doing it the hard way by looking only through the scope!
Anyway ... shortly thereafter I heard about this "Blue Planetary", and as it was right in "my" neck of the woods decided it had to be done! I had my 10" dob back then, which was still plenty of aperture to find it, and yet I failed dismally on the first 3 (?) attempts!
I remember the night I first found it, I was so pleased I just didn't want to let it slip out of my field of view so I studied it for ages.
I made sure I revisited it during each subsequent observing session, and yet even though I knew where to find it, and what to expect in terms of size and apearance, there were still occasions where it eluded me!
All I can say is that I always look for it manually first, and still get a faint tingle of satisfaction from finding it - but it's good to know the Argo Navis is always there as a backup - just in case!
