Seeing NGC2185 and 2024!

Last night at one of our darker sites (still green on the light pollution map) NGC2185 and 2024 eluded me. Seeing was listed as bad and may have had something to do with it. However, it still seems that they should have been visible. Zeta Orionis clearly was a problem with 2024. One suggestion was to put Z-O out of the FOV to see 2024, but with the bad seeing, that didn't seem to help. Any advice would be appreciated; filters, magnification etc. 12" dob and 1278 5" Burgess refractor.

I'm very often disappointed by the views of the nebulosity near Zeta Orionis. Even when I consider conditions to be quite good it appears as againt featureless patch even in my 12.5-inch. On rare occasions, however, I have seen it very bright and detailed. My best view of it was from La Palma last September. Then it showed incredible detail and stood very well out against the background sky. The explanation was of course that the NELM was about 7 and no disturbing light was present.
I also remember an observation from the time before the invention of the high-pressure sodium lamp. I used an 8.5-inch Newtonian, and found the nebula by accident. It was not as detailed as I saw it last year, but quite good.
I have experimented with filters on this nebula, but generally prefer to observe it without a filter. It is crucial to keep Zeta Orionis outside the field of view. With my 12.5-inch a 13mm Nagler gives 115x magnification. This is a good choice for this object.

Inge S