Picture of the Day 06/24/26 - Wikimedia Commons

The Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24) is a dust-free window into distant regions of the Milky Way, visible to the naked eye in dark skies. This 3-panel mosaic spans only a small portion of the star cloud in near infrared and visible light. The field includes the open clusters NGC 6603 (left) and Collinder 469 (center), the dark nebula Barnard 92 (right), and the H-II region Sharpless 41 (green glow). Tonight, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud can be seen all night from most of the world.

Brainandforce, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.