M11-The Wild Duck Cluster

The Wild Duck Cluster was discovered in 1681 by Gottfried Kirch.  It is described by the famous astronomer Robert Burnham, Jr. as "One of the richest and most compact of the galactic (open) clusters."  This cluster contains an estimated 2900 stars, with over 500 having a visual magnitude brighter than 15, making it an easy object to see through binoculars.  Located 6000 light years from earth, Messier Object 11 is 250 million years old.  This cluster of stars is said to resemble a flock of ducks in flight, giving it the common name Wild Duck Cluster

This photo was taken on October 12, 2005, at about 8:30 CST by Amy Coddington and Christina Fung in the Macalester Observatory in Saint Paul, MN.  During the imaging, clouds started rolling in to a maximum of 10% cloud cover.  There was no wind and almost a full moon.  This picture is a composite of three different photos taken in different wavelenghts.  Two 45 second exposures were taken with the red and visible light filters, and a 60 second exposure was taken with the blue filter.
Sources:
http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy_messier_11to20.html
http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m011.html