Messier 11 (RGB)

This is Messier 11, aka The Wild Duck Cluster and some surrounding dark nebulae. The popular name comes not from the cluster being duck shaped but because the brighter stars form a “V” shape that looks like ducks flying in formation. However, that sure isn’t obvious in this image and I’ve never noticed it visually.

The cluster is in Scutum (the Shield), and is in a very dense star field. There are several dark nebulae near by. It’s a fairly compact open cluster with an age of a bit over 300 million years. It’s also a bit over 6,000 light years away.

This is 13h 40m of RGB data. For all the technical details, see astrobin.

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