Eta Carinae and the Homunculus?

[jiahao1986]

Actually the Homunculus is visible using a 5 incher under steady seeings. I've seen it with my ETX125. However, the most unforgettable sighting was the first one, using NTU Astro Club's 10 incher. I was scanning through Eta Carinae using high power till I suddenly saw an odd shape star with two orange 'ears'. Almost at the same time the famous Hubble image flashed to my mind, I was totally blown away with a deep shock that the thing could be seen using amateur telescope!

[rcj]

You guys must have been very lucky! Got to give it a go next time. Was told one needs to have stable seeing and the subtlety of the twin-lobes requires fine resolution. I have included an annotated version of the Eta Carinae Nebula to show the position of the Homunculus (which is overexposed and overwhelmed by the nebula's core brightness) and also the KeyHole Nebula.