The dark lanes are not a figment of the imagination. Sir John Herschel saw " a beautiful irregularly R cl 10' or 12' diam. The stars are all 11m except one = 9m whose place is taken. Examined with high magnifiers [I have often viewed it with 800 and even 1200]; it is broken into 5 or 6 distinct groups with rifts or cracks between them."
The overall shape of the cluster gave the appearance of a flock of ducks to Smyth " This object, which somewhat resembles a flight of wild ducks in shape, is a gathering of minute stars, with a prominent 8th-magnitude in the middle, and two following; but by all analogy these are decidedly between us and the cluster." So, no duck or ducks can be seen
Rich
