Hello DSF,
i couldn't find much about observing Merope nebula, i have observed this from a bortle-3 sky in 2013 with a 17.5" and a 30mm eyepiece, the nebula was just visible, but during a recent visit to a NELM +5.5mag location, i was using an 8" f/6 scope with a 30mm wide angle eyepiece and i could sense some nebulosity around the brighter stars of M45, there was no dew problem and the eyepiece was kept in a box so i could safely eliminate that to be the culprit, also i happen to see a strong cutoff line next to a star which i later checked in software and turned out to be merope, i didn't make a log of it unfortunately, my question to all the experts here is, is it possible to see M45 nebulosity around the stars so easily with a small aperture like an 8"? or was it something else.