This image was taken with an MN190 Maksutov-Newtonian telescope. Because of its design, Maksutov-Newtonian telescopes do not normally produce diffraction spikes (the bright lines coming off the star). Instead, star images from a Mak-Newt normally appear as perfectly round balls of light. And normally that’s what I want in my images.

But, sometimes diffraction spikes can add a lot to an image, particularly if the image is that of a bright star or cluster of stars. So, to get the spikes in this image, I made a simple spike-inducer by running two strings across the fromt of the scope.