the pillars of creation

The Eagle Nebula, Messier 16, captured famously in Hubble's "Pillars of Creation" image is described in the popular amateur astronomy book "Turn Left at Orion" as:

Known as the Eagle Nebula, the Hubble Space telescope took a famous image of it's pillars of dust where stars are being formed; but in a small telescope, M16 merely appears to be aloose open cluster. Binoculars show it as dim, hazy patch of light. With a 3", you may be able to pick out about two dozen individual stars. In a Dobsonian telescope on a good night, you can begin to see the nebula among the stars.

With the Revolution Imager this beautiful nebula and it's stars and distinctive nebulosity are visible in your own backyards with your own small telescopes. The images below were taken under heavily light polluted skies, with telescopes as small as 3 inches under the moon!