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M 11  (NGC 6705)    The Wild Duck Cluster

M 11 (NGC 6705) is an open cluster located in the small constellation Scutum. It is one of the richest and densest open clusters, packing an estimated 2900 member stars into a group around 23 LY across. If you were on a planet circling one of the stars near its center, the night sky would be lit up with hundreds of first-magnitude stars. M 11 is located at a distance of around 6120 LY within the Sagittarius arm of our Milky Way galaxy. With an age of around 250 million years, many of the cluster's stars are still blue-white giants, which visually helps it stand out against the background of tiny golden Milky Way stars.
The name "Wild Duck Cluster" is credited to Admiral Smyth, a contemporary of William Herschel, who described a portion of the cluster as looking like a flight of wild geese. The cluster was first observed by Gottfried Kirch on the 1st of September, 1681. For a number of years afterwards, the object was known as "Kirch's Nebula."

Date(s) Acquired: 12 July 2015
Telescope: Orion 120mm EON Apochromatic Refractor
Camera: QSI Model 583

 

   Exposure Time (min) 
   Number of Exposures
   RGB
   1.5
   
   -
   
   -
   OIII
   -
   RGB
   20
   
   0
   
   0
   OIII
   0

 

Processing:
Master red, green, and blue images created using SIAM.
Color composite image created using Basic Processing Procedure III.
Color composite image contrast-stretched using Adobe Photoshop.




 

 

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