[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Well oddly enough, this question of the pillars came up at the last AAQ meeting, and I had to admit never really looking for them.

So tonight, I wheeled out the 20" especially and here's my report (drum roll ...)

The transparency tonight was so-so (but the central star in m27 was clearly visible at mag 14) from a semi-dark home site 20km from Brizzie CBD. Humidity was outrageous after a wet week, but for once the seeing was superb - an easy 8/9.

Turning to M16 - with a 35mm Panoptic (73x) the broad nebulosty of the eagle was barely visible against the starry background - the view was improved slightly with a 17mm Nagler (149x). Things improved dramatically with an OIII filter, where the shape of the eagle was now more distinct and the "ghost" of the pillars was visible directly and beginning to show some definition with averted vision. No great improvement was found at 300x. The whole experience was visually quite ordinary - a bit like the Horsehead nebula - something better enjoyed in print!

With a dark site I recon that the pillars would be fairly (but not dramatically)distinct in the 20" - but I shall have to wait untill my next venture out west for that.

[in contrast - The Swan nebula was a bright knotted mass of fluffy gas clouds showing fabulous detail at 300x in OIII - but that's another story ...]