8th September 2004
Open cluster
Magnitude: 5.8 Size: 14.0'
Right ascension: 18h 51m 21s
Declination: -6° 15' 42"
Constellation: Scutum
200mm F5 newtonian @ F3.3, SC1.5 toucam RAW mode.
80mm F5 refractor @ F10 guidescope with SC1 toucam and GuideDog
The star clouds of Scutum and the other summer constellations are quickly setting shortly after sunset. Tonight I was able to image M11, The Wild Duck cluster. This is one of the richest open clusters in the sky. and contains getting on for 3000 stars.
I captured 100x10s exposures of the central region and 8x25x10s sets of exposures of the ajoining fields of view. All were captured in k3, debayered in AVIRaw, stacked in registax and curves adjusted in photoshop. Then I used photoshop to layer and adjust the mosaic into one large image. NeatImage was used for minor noise reduction and sharpening. The whole image was then reduced to 1024 wide.
Whilst taking this image, I was amazed quite how many stars there are in these regions.
I must confess, however hard I look, I see no ducks, wild or otherwise.
Location: Curdridge, Southampton, UK. 51N 15W.
Details of equipment and
method.