Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scutum (Sct)  ·  Contains:  M 26  ·  NGC 6694
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M26, Gary Imm
M26
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M26

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M26, Gary Imm
M26
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M26

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Description

M26 is an open cluster located 6300 light years away in the constellation of Scutum at a declination of -9 degrees.  It is a magnitude 9 cluster which spans 7 arc-minutes in our apparent view.  This corresponds to a diameter of 13 light years.

This object is one of the least impressive Messier open star clusters and the dimmest open cluster in the entire Messier catalog. It contains 100 stars and most of these members are blue in color. An interesting feature of this cluster is a well-defined zone of low star density in a region immediately surrounding the nucleus. The likely explanation is that this region is obscured by dark interstellar dust blocking the light of some of the stars from our view.

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M26, Gary Imm