Surfing Sagitarius

Last night was so good I thought I'd try for a repeat tonight and see what I could find in Sagitarius besides Jupiter. It's a little lower in the sky and a bit hazier than Ophiuchus but there's so much there it's hard not to find something to look at. I tried for M17, Hewitt-White's 'Too Many Names Nebula', using my 7x50's to get a feel for the suggested star-hop. I easily found the 5.4 mag star with a nearby smudge and so tried it with my trusty 8" dob. Bingo, right on, and there she was, swimming prettily in her stellar lake. With my 25mm ep the swan shape was very clear with no filter. I could even occasionally make out the 'wing' shapes. I was also able to catch M22 and M28 globulars, nice but small, M16, M18, and huge M8. All in all it was a good if short and somewhat humid night.