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This thread prompted me to have a go at finding it last night.
Transparency, 3/5, cloudy day, night was 'clear' but seemed a little fuzzy up high, ice maybe.
Seeing similar 3/5 only zenith seemed reasonably stable.
I was out from about 2030 till 2130 on the driveway with the 10" f5 Newt in it's DOB cradle
Temp cool, humidity low for Auckland. Almost zero wind.
M104 was close to Mars last night, a good starting point.
Hunted for over half an hour in the right region with no luck at all so gave up and went over for a quick look at Eta C and Crux.
Swung back to have another look just after 9 pm. Found Algorab, slid down (North) to the long arrow asterism with it's three star triangle 'head'. Followed that direction a little more to the three star lineup Kevin shows and bingo it popped into view. It sits in a small asterism I call 'The Shopping Trundler' for obvious reasons when you see it.
Small but distinctive glow in the 20mm SV, the 15mm dimmed it but also revealed the dark edge. I managed to use both the TMB 9mm and 6mm Planetarys and still see it albeit quite dim. 9mm gave the best edge definition, a compromse between dimness and size.
This is still in my Nth sky over the CBD so a fair amount of LP up there.
I suspect I might be able to see it just with the 102mm F7 Lunt but photographically it would be too small. This weekend is not predicted to have good weather but I'll remount the Newt onto the EQ6 and the DSLR and hope for a chance to improve on my last imaging effort for this target.
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