Great report! Congrats on seeing the new PNe! I'll be sure to hunt it down, assuming it'll be clear here in Melbourne before the sun turns into a red giant and vaporises Earth...and me with it.
You seem to have spotted it quite easily visually, it's a surprise no one has picked it before with what all the DSS surveys, giant telescopes, CCD technology etc etc. Kudos to the lucky bugger who discovered it..and what a feat amongst all this technology!
Nice job catching IC1296 aswell, no chance of seeing it here....simply far too low and in the light pollution/haze. The Ring Nebula is however very nice in my 12" desite being 10º off the horizon
What size scope were you using?