M11
NGC 6705, Wild Duck Cluster
35’ x 23’ | 0.3”/px | 7000 × 4667 px
Scutum
RA 18h 51m Dec -6° 16’ | 0°
Messier 11, also known as the Wild Duck Cluster, is one of the richest and most compact open star clusters known. Located in the constellation Scutum, it was discovered by the German astronomer Gottfried Kirch in 1681 and later included in Charles Messier's catalog of comet-like objects in 1764. The cluster is approximately 6,200 light-years away from Earth and has an estimated age of around 220 million years. It contains thousands of stars, many of which are brighter and younger than our Sun. The name "Wild Duck Cluster" comes from the V-shaped formation of its brightest stars, which resembles a flock of ducks in flight.
source: Mistral.ai
Data Acquisition
Data was collected over 11 nights during the months of May and June 2025, using a 14” reflector telescope with full-frame camera at the remote observatory in Spain. Data was gathered using standard LRGB filters. A total of approximately 17 hours of data was combined to create the final image.
Location Remote hosting facility IC Astronomy in Oria, Spain (37°N 2°W)
Sessions
Frames
Equipment
Telescope
Mount
Camera
Filters
Guiding
Accessoires
Software
Planewave CDK14 (2563mm @ f/7.2), Optec Gemini Rotating focuser
10Micron GM2000HPS, custom pier
Moravian C3-61000 Pro (full frame), cooled to -10 ºC
Chroma 2” LRGB unmounted, Moravian filterwheel L, 7-position
Unguided
Compulab Tensor I-22, Dragonfly, Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox v2
Voyager Advanced, Viking, Mountwizzard4, Astroplanner, PixInsight 1.9.3
Processing
All processing was done in Pixsinsight unless stated otherwise. Default features were enhanced using scripts and tools from RC-Astro, SetiAstro, GraXpert, CosmicPhotons and others. Images were calibrated using 50 Darks, 50 Flats, and 50 Flat-Darks, registered and integrated using WeightedBatchPreProcessing (WBPP). The processing workflow diagram below outlines the steps taken to create the final image.
The first time WBPP was run, 120 out of 200 luminance frames could not be ‘measured’. An analysis with subframeselector did not immediately point to any particular image characteristic that was causing this. On the PixInsight forum there are more reports of ‘unmeasurable’ files since recent updates, especially on Macs. I ran the same WBPP instructions on the same dataset using another computer, where all files were measurable. The failing machine was a Mac Pro 2019 running MacOS 15.4.1 and PixInsight 1.9.3 build 1646. The successful machine was a MacBook Pro M2 Max running MacOS 15.5 and PixInsight 1.9.3 build 1644.
The processing of the images followed largely a standard processing workflow. M11 is located in an immensely dense star-field, which came out very reddish. So to balance the colours a bit, the saturation of the reds was reduced just a hair.
Processing workflow (click to enlarge)
This image has been published on Astrobin.
