M11 · Seestar S30 · 2026-07-09

Messier 11 (NGC 6705), the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, lying about 6,100 light-years away, making it one of the most distant open clusters in the Messier catalog still visible to the naked eye. It is unusually dense and populous for an open cluster, containing roughly 2,900 stars and estimated to be about 316 million years old. Its brighter stars form a distinctive V- or wedge-shaped pattern in small telescopes, resembling a flock of ducks in flight, which gives the cluster its common name. Set against the rich star fields of the Scutum Star Cloud, M11 makes an excellent broadband target, with tight, colorful stars standing out sharply against the dense Milky Way backdrop.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Duck_Cluster]

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration (x2)
2. Drizzle Integration
3. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
4. Dynamic Crop
5. GraXpert (gradient removal)
6. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
7. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
8. Multiscale Adaptive Stretch

Messier 11 (NGC 6705), the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, lying about 6,100 light-years away, making it one of the most distant open clusters in the Messier catalog still visible to the naked eye. It is unusually dense and populous for an open cluster, containing roughly 2,900 stars and estimated to be about 316 million years old. Its brighter stars form a distinctive V- or wedge-shaped pattern in small telescopes, resembling a flock of ducks in flight, which gives the cluster its common name. Set against the rich star fields of the Scutum Star Cloud, M11 makes an excellent broadband target, with tight, colorful stars standing out sharply against the dense Milky Way backdrop.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Duck_Cluster]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration (x2)
2. Drizzle Integration
3. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
4. Dynamic Crop
5. GraXpert (gradient removal)
6. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
7. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise) (x2)
8. Multiscale Adaptive Stretch (x2)
9. Background Neutralization
10. Dynamic Background Extraction
11. Curves Transformation (x3)

Messier 11 (NGC 6705), the Wild Duck Cluster, is a rich open star cluster in the constellation Scutum, lying about 6,100 light-years away, making it one of the most distant open clusters in the Messier catalog still visible to the naked eye. It is unusually dense and populous for an open cluster, containing roughly 2,900 stars and estimated to be about 316 million years old. Its brighter stars form a distinctive V- or wedge-shaped pattern in small telescopes, resembling a flock of ducks in flight, which gives the cluster its common name. Set against the rich star fields of the Scutum Star Cloud, M11 makes an excellent broadband target, with tight, colorful stars standing out sharply against the dense Milky Way backdrop.

[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Duck_Cluster]

Annotated Image

The annotated version is shown above - click it to zoom. Open the annotated image at full resolution.

Sky Location

The chart above shows where this image sits on the night sky. The yellow outline is its field of view, with the picture itself drawn at its true orientation; north is up and east is left. Click the chart to zoom in, and use "open full resolution" for the full-size chart.

Image Details

PixInsight Processing

1. Image Integration (x2)
2. Drizzle Integration
3. BlurXTerminator (AI deconvolution)
4. Dynamic Crop
5. GraXpert (gradient removal)
6. Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
7. NoiseXTerminator (AI denoise)
8. Multiscale Adaptive Stretch