M 24 Deep sky · Open cluster in Sagittarius · M 24 · IC 4715
Small Sagittarius Star Cloud
Not a cluster but a window: a gap in the Milky Way’s dust through which we see a distant arm of the galaxy, crowded with stars.
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- Type
- Open cluster
- Designations
- M 24 · IC 4715
- Constellation
- Sagittarius
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.6
- Apparent size
- 1.5° × 60′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 18h 17m · Dec −18° 33′
At its longest it spans 2.9 full Moons laid side by side, the Moon being about 31′ across. The Sun passes 5° from it around late December, and for about 27 days of the year it sits within 15° of the Sun, lost in its glare.
When to see it
On the night of Wed 23 Jun 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | 20:51 | 01:11 · 20° | 05:30 |
| New York EDT | 20:13 | 01:05 · 31° | 05:58 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:19 | 01:16 · 70° | 07:13 |
| Sydney GMT+10 | 17:16 | 00:07 · 75° | 06:58 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 21° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 74° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around late June, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by late September it is highest in the early evening, and in late March not until the hours before dawn.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- The naked eye, from a dark country sky, which shows stars to about magnitude 7.0; from a city, binoculars.
Look for
It is a bright patch of the summer Milky Way north of the Teapot, plain to the naked eye from a dark site.
Science
The stars in it lie at many distances along one long line of sight, toward the inner galaxy. Dark clouds frame the window on every side.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 21°; from 35° north it climbs to 36°; from the equator it climbs to 71°; from 35° south it climbs to 74°.
Look for
Magnitude 4.6 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (0.1 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (2.4 to spare); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (6.4 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (7.9 to spare). Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 21% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it is wider than the whole field, so you sweep across it.
Words used here
Its constellation
Nearby in Sagittarius
- Nebula Lagoon Nebula
- Nebula Trifid Nebula
- Globular cluster Great Sagittarius Cluster
- Nebula Omega Nebula
- Open cluster Black Swan Cluster
- Open cluster Webb's Cross
- Open cluster M 23
- Open cluster M 25
- Globular cluster M 28
- Globular cluster M 54
- Globular cluster Specter Cluster
- Globular cluster M 69
- Globular cluster M 70
- Globular cluster M 75