M26, NGC 6694

M26 is an open cluster in the constellation Scutum. A fairly tight cluster, in this deep image it has to compete with a very populous background of Milky Way stars. It is about 5000 light-years away and around 90 million years old. This approximately true-color picture was created from images taken in June 1996 using BVR colors, at the Burrell Schmidt telescope of Case Western Reserve University's Warner and Swasey Observatory located on Kitt Peak, near Tucson, Arizona, during the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program operated at the Kitt Peak National Observatory and supported by the National Science Foundation. Image size 23.7 arc minutes.