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M24, John Bozeman

M24

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M24, John Bozeman

M24

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Description

The Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (also known as Messier 24 and IC 4715) is a star cloud in the constellation of Sagittarius approximately 600 light years wide. The stars, clusters and other objects comprising M24 are part of the Sagittarius or Sagittarius-Carina arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Messier described M24 as a "large nebulosity containing many stars" and gave its dimensions as being some 1.5° across. Some sources, improperly, identify M24 as the small open cluster NGC 6603. The location of the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud is near the Omega Nebula (also known as M17) and open cluster Messier 18, both north of M24. M24 is one of only three Messier objects that are not actual deep sky objects. M24 fills a space of significant volume to a depth of 10,000 to 16,000 light-years. The star cloud is the most dense concentration of individual stars visible using binoculars, with around 1,000 stars visible within a single field of view.  In telescopes it is best seen at low magnification, with a field of view of at least 2 degrees.[6] Described as "a virtual carpet of stellar jewels", M24 is visible to the naked eye whenever the Milky Way itself is visible as well. It holds a collection of numerous types of stars that are visible through the galaxy's obscuring band of interstellar dust.

12 micron IR data from the WISE All SKy Survey. Processed with FITS Liberator, PixInsight and Photoshop 2022.

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M24, John Bozeman