The Wild Duck Star Cluster - M11
Open star cluster in Scutum
Orion 8" f/4 Astrograph

 
 Well,
            I dont see a flock of "Wild Ducks" in my image, but
            it is still a very rich and fine cluster! This was taken last
            week during a break in the seemingly eternal monsoon we get in
            summer here in Arizona. This is a 15 minute total exposure time
            image, taken with the 8" f/3.9 with a Baader coma corrector.
            You can see the star images around the edges are not giant bird
            shapes - which is what I get If I dont use this corrector, but
            nice round stars. Guiding was a bit of a challenge for this shot,
            my Lunt refractor once again fell apart while in use and the
            entire focuser mechanism jammed. fortunately, I was able to just
            get it to focus, and locked it down for the rest of the night.
 

            
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a larger view:

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Optics:  8" f/4 Newtonian Astrograph w/Baader MPCC Coma Corrector
Platform:  Homemade GEM with Byers Starmaster Drive 
Camera:  Hutech Modified Canon XTi @ ISO800
Exposure:  3 x 5m
Location:  Happy Jack, Arizona
Elevation:  6850 ft.
Sky:  Seeing  8/10, Transparency 7/10
Outside Temperature:  45F
Processing Tools:  Photoshop CS2
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