|
|
| M24, (and The Little Star Cloud), Click on photo above for a full frame full rez image (1.2mb in size). |
|
Under entry No. 24 in his catalog, Charles Messier
listed a large object of 1 1/2 deg in extension, which he included on June
20, 1764, and describes it as "a large nebulosity in which there are many
stars of different magnitudes." Messier object number 24 is not a true deep
sky object, but a huge star cloud forming a part of the naked eye view of
the Milky Way, a pseudo-cluster of stars spread thousands of light years
along the line of sight toward the center of our galaxy. It is in fact a
chance tunnel in our galactic dust, a clear window through the Galaxy. Such
openings are very helpful in understanding our galaxies structure,
since they make it possible to study the otherwise hidden and distant
regions. The stars, clusters and other objects of M24 form a portion of a
spiral arm of our galaxy which fills a space of significant depth of between
10,000 to 16,000 light years. Although this starry area is what Messier described and noted, it is interesting that within this cloud, there's an actual open cluster, NGC 6603 - seen here on the left side of the image. Many catalogs give the Messier number to this object, despite Messier's description as a "large nebulosity in which there are many stars of different magnitudes," which matches well with the cloud and not the cluster. Under considerably dark skies, M24 is easily located with the unaided eye as a Milky Way star cloud in Northern Sagittarius, i.e. well "above" the teapot asterism. Telescopes will reveal a vast number of stars, arranged in remarkable patterns. NGC 6603 will be well visible starting from 4-inch, and larger scopes will show the other clusters mentioned above. |
|
10"
F6.3 Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope, (1600mm F.L.) Modified Canon
300D camera with Baader IR-UV filter and coma corrector, placed at the scopes prime focus |