Astronomy Picture of the Day - Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud

NASA ^ | 11 Jul, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Chuck Ayoub

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects, M24 is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula. It's a gap in nearby, obscuring interstellar dust clouds that allows a view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Direct your gaze through this gap with binoculars or a small telescope and you are looking through a window over 300 light-years wide at stars some 10,000 light-years or more from Earth. Sometimes called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24's luminous stars stretch across this gorgeous interstellar scene. Spanning over four full moons on the sky toward the constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic field of view includes dark markings B92 and B93 near the center of M24, along with other clouds of dust and glowing nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[No name given]

Wow.

[SkyDancer]

Yep, gets messier and messier as time goes on ....

[telescope115]

It’s a great sight to see in binoculars or a small, short focal length refractor, or rich-field telescope. Under dark skies there is just SO MUCH to see.

It’s in the southern sky for us in the Northern Hemisphere. I encourage anyone who can to seek it out.

[libertylover]

The number of stars and the distances are staggering.

[skinny old man]

WOW !