On Sun, 7 Aug 2005 22:42:43 +0000 (UTC), Mirfak
wrote:

Under very dark skies, with no moon, can you see M8 with a good pair of
7x50's?

You can do it under crappy skies. I can see M8 from my front yard
with 7x50s. M8 is the second brightest emission nebula after M42/M43.
It's pretty bright.