ScienceDownEast | ScienceDownEast Astrophotography | Recent Images | M11 (Wild Duck Cluster)
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Messier 11 (NGC 6705), the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, lying about 6,100 light-years away, making it one of the most distant open clusters in the Messier catalog still visible to the naked eye. It is unusually dense and populous for an open cluster, containing roughly 2,900 stars and estimated to be about 316 million years old. Its brighter stars form a distinctive V- or wedge-shaped pattern in small telescopes, resembling a flock of ducks in flight, which gives the cluster its common name. Set against the rich star fields of the Scutum Star Cloud, M11 makes an excellent broadband target, with tight, colorful stars standing out sharply against the dense Milky Way backdrop.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Duck_Cluster]
Messier 11 (NGC 6705), the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, lying about 6,100 light-years away, making it one of the most distant open clusters in the Messier catalog still visible to the naked eye. It is unusually dense and populous for an open cluster, containing roughly 2,900 stars and estimated to be about 316 million years old. Its brighter stars form a distinctive V- or wedge-shaped pattern in small telescopes, resembling a flock of ducks in flight, which gives the cluster its common name. Set against the rich star fields of the Scutum Star Cloud, M11 makes an excellent broadband target, with tight, colorful stars standing out sharply against the dense Milky Way backdrop.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Duck_Cluster]
| Moon Phase | Waning Crescent | ||||||||
| Camera | Seestar S30 Pro (4K Sony IMX585 sensor) | ||||||||
| Optics | 160 mm focal length, f/5.3, 30 mm aperture (APO quadruplet) | ||||||||
| Date | 2026-07-09 | ||||||||
| PixInsight Processing |
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