Finally got to look at the Pencil from humid but dark skies at a star party in Coorg in South India (13°N latitude). The conditions were around Bortle 3, with M33 visible to naked eye as an elongated patch, I was using a GSO 16" Dob and a 1.25" Orion Ultrablock filter. The extinction in south India can generally be high because of high humidity, which can make the views mushy and dim especially at low altitudes, but I did not have luck so far catching the Pencil from the USA so I decided to deal with this.
17.5mm Baader Morpheus (104x):
A very weak (although not as bad as Sh2-91, but waaaay fainter than Veil) filament amorphously extends roughly N-S in the eyepiece. The brightest part of the filament that is consistently detected lies around 09h 00m 17s -45° 56' 53" J2000. The full filament could not be discerned and concrete details were difficult to infer.
25mm Super Plössl (73x):
Much better view. More of the filament can be seen, and its elongation can be also detected as being towards the double star to its NE. The brightest part remains to be the aforementioned region, but the extensions on either side appear vaguely whereas the brighter part is more concrete at this lower power.
Clear Skies
Akarsh
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