Messier
24 The Small Sagittarius Star Cloud.
One of the largest objects in the
Messier catalog is M24, the
Small Sagittarius Star Cloud. It also goes by the Italian
"Delle Caustiche", named for its unique arrangement of stars in rays,
spirals, arches and caustic curves. The star cloud is considered
an
open cluster, and extends in a northeast to southwest direction, 95
x 35 arcminutes. This equates to about 600 light-years across. Its
overall brightness is difficult to determine, with magnitude estimates
from 2.5 - 4.6, making it easily visible from a
dark sky site. M24 is bordered by several
dark nebulae, and contains two NGC open clusters withn its
boundaries (see annotated thumbnail below).
AnnotatedThis image was made with an ASA 10N astrograph and STL11000 CCD camera from Dark Sky New Mexico, using RGB filters for a total exposure time of just 55 minutes. Image processing was done in MaximDL and Photoshop. The image graced the cover of the Astronomical League's June 2024 issue of the Reflector magazine.
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This page illustrates what can be photographed using amateur telescopes and a CCD camera. I currently use an SBIG STL11000M camera and have previously used SBIG and Starlight Xpress cameras, as well as a Cookbook 245 camera that I built myself. Many of the images o this web site were taken from my backyard near a busy street with several street lights. Not only is the CCD camera a great imaging tool, but it allows "real time" observation of objects not normally visible in areas with moderate-severe light pollution.
