M23
Open cluster in Sagittarius

10.1″ f/4.5, Mallincam DS432cTEC with 0.5 focal reducer and Astronomik UHC filter
Exposure = 5 sec, Live Stacked frames = 20, Gain = 41 of 250

A very sparse and large open cluster consisting of a couple hundred evenly distributed suns, M23 appears as a slight concentration in the background of Milky Way stars, at least 30 arcminutes across. The cluster is about 16 light years across and 2000 light years away. Stephen James O’Meara reports that he sees a bat in the pattern of stars at medium power, but I don’t see it; Robert Burnham Jr. sees oriental calligraphy with the curving arcs of stars, which I can see more. Personally, I see a flying Canada goose, with the head at the bright magnitude 6.75 star on the right, with its long neck represented by a string of stars going towards the cluster center, and a wing above and another below the core or body of the goose. What pattern do you see?

North at 1 o’clock, East at 10 o’clock