Object:The Wild Duck Cluster (also known as Messier 11, or NGC 6705) is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Scutum (the Shield). It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue of diffuse objects in 1764.
Its popular name derives from the brighter stars forming a triangle which could resemble a flying flock of ducks (or, from other angles, one swimming duck). The cluster is located just to the east of the Scutum Star Cloud midpoint.
The Wild Duck Cluster is one of the richest and most compact of the known open clusters. It is one of the most massive open clusters known, and it has been extensively studied. Its age has been estimated to about 316 million years.
The cluster is metal-rich with an iron abundance of [Fe/H] = 0.17±0.04. Despite its youth, it shows an enhancement of Alpha process elements. Possibly this is due to an enhancement of its birth molecular cloud by a nearby Type II supernova explosion.
Taken: July 27, 2019
Telescope: Astro-Tech 14” RC with 0.65x focal reducer
Mount: Paramount ME II unguided
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro (cooled to -15C; unity gain) Bin 2×2.
Focuser: Moonlite Nitecrawler
Filters used: Luminance, Red, Green, Blue on a ZWO 8 position filter wheel
Exposures: 16×45 sec red and blue filters, 15×45 sec green and 13×45 luminance for a total exposure time of 45 minutes; calibrated with 100 bias frames, 30 dark frames, 32 flat frames with 32 dark-flats
Seeing Conditions:
Processed with PixInsight and Photoshop CC 2019