M11 The Wild Duck Open Star Cluster in Scutum
Its a favorite among amateur astronomers as it is a bright object (5.8 Mag.) in the Constellation of Scutum,
& the blue color of the young hot blue stars is very noticeable visually in most telescopes. yes it is visible in binoculars too.. just not as detailed as a telescope view.
M11 is in front of the Scutum Star Cloud and is located about 6,197 Light Years away from Earth.
Open clusters are groups of stars that are only loosely bound by gravity, in this case about 2900 stars are involved with the cluster & their age is about 220 million years old.
The popular name “The Wild Duck” was derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could resemble a flying flock of ducks.
Capture details:
QHY183C Cooled Color Cmos Camera & C6 Newt. Scope, Baader Coma Corrector, Bisque MYT Mount for a 24 minute exposure(8 x 3 minute subs) Bin 1×1, 0.66 Arc-sec/pixel resolution.
The original full frame is 60’x 40′ arc/min FOV,
I included a crop from the original to allow you to see a close-up inside the Wild Duck Cluster.
Captured via the SKY X Software, Stacked calibrated images in Deep Sky Stacker, Nebulosity color balance and Adobe CS for final output.
Captured from my backyard observatory in Dayton Ohio on 10-23-2019.
Best Regards,
John Chumack
www.galacticimages.com
