Home > Star Clusters > Open > M24

M24

Messier 24
Sagittarius Star Cloud

Right Ascension 18h 18m 24s Best Seen 7/8-10/14
Declination -18° 26' 00" Magnitude 4.6
Constellation Sagittarius

Actual
Compared
to Sun
Distance 10,000 - 16,000 ly --
Diameter ~ 200 ly --
Number of Stars -- 1
Actual Brightness -- --
Age -- 5 billion
Integrated Spectral Type -- G2 V
Density (gram/cubic cm) -- --

What To Look For Through The Telescope


  1. Recommended eyepiece: 80 mm on the 6" telescope (Do not use the 16").

  2. Through the telescope the star cloud will appear as an area of the sky with a high density of stars with a couple dark regions imbedded.


M24 Information

  1. This Messier object is not a true deep sky object but rather a star cloud in our Milky Way. It is often referred to as the “Little” or “Small Sagittarius Star Cloud”.

  2. Under considerably dark skies M24 is easily visible to the unaided eye as a Milky Way star cloud in Northern Sagittarius.

  3. Under less favorable conditions a small telescope will make M24 visible.

  4. This cloud of stars is spread over thousands of light years along the line of sight and lies toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

  5. Its visibility to us is made possible by a chance hole in the interstellar dust that is concentrated in the plane of our galaxy.

Home > Star Clusters > Open > M24 > Reference top
References
Item Updated Notes
-- 2007-6-14 Originally created