The dense star regions of the Milky Way

Finally! --- The sky conditions improved this weekend and I was blessed with two clear nights of astrophotography.

Got the scope setup on Friday afternoon and it was left up through Saturday evening/early Sunday.  Using the Hyperstar wide field camera I was able to image a few interesting areas in the dense galactic arm in Sagittarius.  Most of us have probably never seen the Milky Way because of light pollution.

First up is the star cluster M11 (NGC 6705), which is right in the midst of a dense star cloud. Known as the Wild Duck Cluster it is an open cluster in the constellation Scutum. It was discovered by Gottfried Kirch in 1681. Charles Messier included it in his catalogue in 1764.  The dark areas scattered about in the image are regions of gas and dust that are between  us and the background stars obscuring the vision.

M11 - EdgeHD11/Hyperstar  10x300sec subs
August 26, 2016

Next is the Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24.  Approximately 600 light years wide, it was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. The stars, clusters and other objects comprising M24 are part of the Sagittarius or Sagittarius-Carina arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Messier described M24 as a "large nebulosity containing many stars" and gave its dimensions as being some 1.5° across.

M24 - Sagittarius Star Cloud
EdgHD11 w/Hyperstar  13x180sec subs
August 26, 2016