M24

M24 is not a real star cluster at all but a huge cloud of stars which form part of a spiral arm in the Milky Way about 13,000 light years distant, which we can see only because of a lack of interstellar dust as we look in this direction. This cloud is sometimes referred to as the 'Little Sagittarius Star Cloud' since it lies not far to the north of the 'Large Sagittarius Star Cloud' which consists to that portion of our galaxy's central bulge that can be seen through a similar tunnel in the interstellar dust that obscures other portions of the Milky Way. Interestingly enough, there is a true open cluster, NGC 6603, embedded within M24, but at magnitude 11, it is dim and not easily seen. This region also includes at least three other clusters, a dark nebula, an emission nebula, and two reflection nebulae. A foreground planetary nebula, NGC 6567, is also located in the western portion of M24, and an 8th magnitude Cepheid variable lies in the southern portion of the cloud. M24 can be easily seen with the naked eye under good conditions.

A mosaic of two images captured in late August, 2006.