The Eagle Nebula in Serpens

The constellation Serpens (the snake) is a bit of an oddball among the official 88 constellations as it is the only one which is divided into two distinct parts in the sky. Specifically, there is Serpens Cauda (the head of the snake) and Serpens Caput (the tail of the snake). So I guess you could say there are actually 89 constellations - but who cares, they are completely arbitrary anyway. The object of interest in this entry, the Eagle Nebula (aka M16) is in the Serpens Caput section. It is just North of Sagittarius and is just a short hop from M17, the subject of the previous entry in this blog.

M16 The Eagle Nebula

This part of the nebula has been much photographed and discussed in recent decades so we though we would see what it looks like through our 16 inch Cassegrain. In the Hubble era it has been rebranded as “the pillars of creation”.