Image of the Month
M-11 (NGC-6705) is a rich open star cluster located in the milky way constellation of Scutum, the Shield. It was discovered in 1681 by Gottfrid Kirch and was included in Charles Messier's catalog as number 11 in 1764. Its common name is "The Wild Duck" cluster. It lies 6100 light years from Earth and is 185 light years across. It is one of the richest and compact of the known open clusters. It is estimated to be a young cluster, only about 300 million years old. It contains over 400 stars brighter than 14th magnitude.
This image, acquired on August 17, 2012, is a 15 minute integration of 1 minute exposures through the Celestron C-11 at f/2, using the HyperStar III imaging system and the Starlight Express SXVR-H694C color CCD camera, operating at -10 degrees below ambient temperature and binned 1 X 1. Guided, captured and combined using Maxim DL5 Pro. Post processed using PhotoShop CS2, Gradient XTerminator, StarShrink, Carboni's Astro Tools and NoiseWare.