Possibly seeing VY Canis Majoris this week

[Matt1979]

(Please disregard my earlier message - I accidentally sent it unfinished)

I have been studying Canis Major recently and I have been trying to see VY Canis Majoris for quite a while. As I live in a hilly area, the view to the lower part fo Canis Major is obstructed from my garden so I have to use a spotting scope from my bedroom window. The spotting scope is 60x (only 12 times less that my 3-inch refractor with 2x Barlow Lens) and has excellent optics.

I was uncertain on Tuesday night whether I had seen VY Canis Majoris - on both Tuesday and last Friday I could see a very dim area of light near the horizontal triangle of stars to the left of Wezen - there is a star to the upper left of the triangle and the dim area of light appeared to the left of this star - where VY Canis Majoris should appear. However, the dim light was only visible when I had the nearby star in view - when I moved the telescope to the left the dim area of light disappeared. If I had really seen VY Canis Majoris, surely I would have seen the dim area of light better without the nearby star in view? When I have seen very dim stars before, I have obviously seen them better when they are in the centre of my view.

The dim area of light I saw couldn't even be resolved into a dim point of light. What could I have really seen?