Lying between Sagittarius and Serpens Cauda, below Aquila and with its brightest star only magnitude 3.85, Scutum is an esily overlooked constellation. Its most immediately noticable features on a dark night are the 'Scutum star clouds', dense areas of the Milky Way very obvious in images. It is home to the lovely Wild Duck Cluster M11, and plenty of smaller open clusters, among them M26 and NGC6683, all of which are visible in the image. Running up from the bottom of the image are: M17, the Swan or Omega Nebula in Sagittarius, luing next to a bright star; M16 the Eagle Nebula in Serpens; NGC6604, a little cluster also in Serpens.