Thanks for all your suggestions!
As it happens my IIS planisphere arrived last night.
I need to properly align the finder, tho I'm not sure exactly how to do it. The thumbscrews seem to be at strange angles, and the manual talks about tightening one and loosening the other, but the difference seems microscopic. I will have to check this out on the weekend... (hopefully this doesn't come across too much of "stoopid newb"
)
I also agree that I don't think it is Canopus. Could it have been Alpha Centauri? I saw pics of it as orange and this thing was blazing orange (the pics I've seen of Canopus have been bright white mostly, I couldn't find any pics of orange versions). Also Alpha Centauri looks to be in the vicinity I saw the object (to the left of Crux in the south sky).
I am yet to see anything as big and blazing as that first sighting!