This is the bright region of the Milky Way known as the Scutum Starcloud, in the constellation of Scutum the Shield. The bright Messier star cluster. M11, aka the Wild Duck Cluster, is embedded in the starcloud at left. This is a wonderful area to scan with binoculars and this field of view with the little RedCat astrograph is similar to what binoculars would show. The mass of dark dusty nebulosity at top is Barnard 111 and B110. The dark nebula at right is B103. The smaller Messier open star cluster M26 is at bottom. At lower left is the small globular cluster NGC 6712 with the tiny (on this scale) cyan-colored planetary nebula IC 1295 beside it at left. At lower right beside the orange star Alpha Scuti is the star cluster NGC 6664 with smaller Trumpler 34 to the left of NGC 6624. Above M11 is the small open cluster NGC 6704. This is a stack of 6 x 6-minute exposures with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/5 and the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 with LENR on as it was the warmest night of the summer, August 18, 2020. Aligned, stacked and median combined in Photoshop to eliminate some satellite trails. Autoguided with the ZWO ASIAir and ASI120MM guide camera with the RedCat on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. No filters employed here.
The rich Starcloud in Scutum the Shield framed here with a field of view similar to binoculars, and showing the prominent star cluster M11, aka the Wild Duck Cluster, at upper left. The cluster Messier 26 is at bottom right, and the small globular cluster NGC 6712 is at lower left. The tiny green planetary nebula IC 1295 is just visible at this scale to the left of NGC 6712. The area is bounded by many Barnard catalog dark nebulas. The very red star below centre is S Scuti. The large and loose open cluster at far right near the star Alpha Scuti is NGC 6664 with the dimmer Trumpler 34 to the left of it. This is a stack of 10 x 6-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH apo refractor, with its flattener/reducer lens for f/4.5 and with the stock Canon R6 camera at ISO 800. Guided with the MGEN3 autoguider with dithering on but no LENR or dark frames to eliminate thermal noise or edge amp glows.
The area near Sirius (at lower right) including the Seagull Nebula (at top left) also called IC 2177, on the Canis Major-Monoceros border. This is with the Fornax Lightrack tracker and is slightly trailed in this stack of 10 x 3 minute exposures at ISO 800 (with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII and Canon 200mm lens at f/2.8) due to poor polar alignment due to polar scope not being orthogonal to the polar axis. Trailed in Dec so not trailed just because of drive errors. Useful as a demo image and as a small illustration. The rings of colour around Sirius are an artifact of the sensor filter, I think!
