Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scutum (Sct)  ·  Contains:  M 11  ·  NGC 6705  ·  Wild Duck cluster
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M11 - Wild Ducks, Ken Sturrock
M11 - Wild Ducks
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M11 - Wild Ducks

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M11 - Wild Ducks, Ken Sturrock
M11 - Wild Ducks
Powered byPixInsight

M11 - Wild Ducks

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Description

The Wild Duck Cluster is one of my favorite objects to look at visually. I remember one night when I "discovered" it with a 4" refractor and my jaw dropped. This is an object that, I feel, images don't do justice (well, maybe just mine) to the visual experience.

This particular picture was based on data that I collected during 2018 and reduced down to color channels. It then sat on the hard disk for months and I have no idea how much time was actually integrated because I tossed the subs and failed to label the masters appropriately. Probably six or seven hours. In my light polluted skies, every minute counts...

The processing was pretty straight-forward: Both automatic and dynamic background extraction, background neutralization, color balance, de-convolution of the luminance channel, a bit of color saturation boost on the RGB, a bit of curves to blur in the saturation artifacts and increase contrast on the dark streaks.

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M11 - Wild Ducks, Ken Sturrock