M11, The Wild Duck Cluster, - this image cropped and reduced from the original photo |
Somebody a long time ago said they could see V shaped groups of stars in this cluster, which gives it its name, the Wild Duck Cluster. I see a couple of V's to the lower right heading out from the main group. But in my opinion, the name sticks mostly because somebody early on called it that, and so it's been repeated and stuck ever since by tradition. M11 is a group of about 3000 young stars (about 800 visible in the full rez view) all pretty close, but expanding away from one another. This cluster is only about 250 million years old, very young in star years.. It is fairly close, about 5000 light years away. It's located in the heart of the summer's Milky Way, above the Teapot, 6 degrees below the galactic equator. It's fairly easily seen with binoculars as a definitely non stellar, fuzzy object. You might be able to distinguish several individual faint stars. In a 10" or larger telescope it's quite a nice bright view, not much different than this picture. |
11"
F10, Celestron EdgeHD, moddified Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, (2800mm F.L.)
Canon Ra camera, placed at the scopes prime focus |