Messier 16 (Eagle nebula) is a combination nebula and open cluster in Serpens Cauda ; magnitude:6.4 ; size: 7' ;the open cluster is easily seen while the nebula is best seen with a filter. My filter of choice was the Lumicon HBeta filter. The filter tends to dim the stars but brings out the nebulosity better.The nebula to me does resemble a bird in flight. The dark central area resembling a check mark is the dark nebula known as the pillars of creation. I had incredibly good seeing on 8/7/2021, and got my best view ever of this incredible object. I used a 21mm Ethos at 115x with my 14.5 Starstructure Dob f/4.3M16.jpg