Butterfly Cluster (M6) in Scorpius

An open cluster of some 80 stars with a diameter of about 20 light years. The computed age of this cluster is 100 million years; half that of nearby M7 but about twice that of the Pleiades. The distacnce to this cluster is approximately 1860 light years but there is some doubt about this value.

M6 is near the tail of the scorpion and was probably known in antiquity. Its overall magnitude is 4.2 and its size is 20' x 20'.

Images taken with Televue NP-101 Telescope mounted on Losmandy G11 mount. Camera used was a Nikon CP5700 used in an afocal mode with a Maxview II eyepiece.

Three 1 minute exposures dark compensated, aligned and stacked, background removed and Digitaly Developed in ImagesPlus 1.72.