McNeil's New Nebula

I was recently looking in Mallas & Kreimer's 1978 book "The Messier
Album".
It reminded me that a few months ago someone mentioned that he had
read somewhere that McNeil's "new" nebula had probably been observed
before McNeil first CCDed it only a few months back.
An article in June Sky & Telescope confirms the new nebula appears on
some earlier astro photos, notably one by Kreimer of M78 in The
Messier Album.
McNeil's Nebula looks pretty tiny on the small reproduced Kreimer
photo but it is definitely there. However, some between times photos
don't display the nebula, so it seems to be decidedly variable and
probably quite similar to the very famous Hubble's Variable Nebula NGC
2261 (mag 9-10ish) in Monoceros, which is a miuch easier targetand
very suitable for amateur visual observation using modest telescopes.
Apart from being interesting to observe because of its variations, NGC
2261 gets a nice write up in Burnham's "Celestial Objects".

All the best Bernie