Had a go tonight - not Feb but you take what you get!
Skies pretty good but a touch milky. Big sky glow dome over the town in the west - didn't interfere with viewing but indicative of lots of stuff in the atmosphere. 4.5" f8 reflector.
M1 - fairly ordinary tonight, a fuzzy, elongated, reasonably bright glow, no detail or real shape (43x). 113x was too much, large and very very dim - rarely worth changing from 21mm EP in this scope for deep sky, but a few objects do stand up (eg M27).
NGC 2244 - Easy naked eye as a faint tiny glow, nice bright sparse cluster at 43x, but battling to see any nebulosity. At 23x (40mm EP), nebulosity in an arc to the NE of the cluster was easily visible, contained by darker bands further NE again. Some hints of nebulosity around the rest, impression is of a large faint object centred roughly on the cluster and occupying about two-thirds of the field or more (FOV over 2 deg).
Had a brief look at NGC 2264. Common names gone mad, Christmas Tree Cluster, Cone Nebula, Fox Fur Nebula, Snowflake Nebula...
Anyway, nothing startling in the field, the cluster (if I saw it) is either a very small one that has a background glow superimposed by a couple of bright stars and one very bright one (and looks nothing like a Christmas Tree or any other kind of tree for that matter), or some sparser arrangement of brighter stars (that also don't look like trees). Can't be bothered finding out, the names turn me off (= Mr Grumpy!
). Field was quite mottled to the north, good luck to all those who are going for "the other part of NGC 2264"!
NGC 1904 (M79) is a great globular cluster even in a small scope, bright and very centrally condensed. It responds well to averted vision, bringing the dim outer areas into view - tonight wasn't the perfect night for viewing it but it still didn't disappoint.
Had a look at NGC 1291, quite bright and instantly visible as I panned through the field at 43x. Bright core, and outer areas that responded to averted vision. Oval shaped with surrounding fainter areas extending to a small star to its approx north. No trace of outer ring. 113x killed it.
Might try the Pyxis cluster another night.
EDIT: Well, it's Feb by the time I got the post up!
Cheers -