Scutum is best known as the home of the Wild Duck Cluster, M11. However about 3.5 degrees south-southwest of the Wild Duck, you'll find the pretty open cluster, M26. The brightest members are five 10th through 12th magnitude stars collected in a Y-asterism. This grouping appears near the center of my drawing, which captures a 129X view in the 10-inch Starfinder equatorial Newtonian. The 22 stars in the immediate vicinity of the asterism are cluster members. 33 field stars are included to frame this celestial gem. |