M24, NGC 6590, and IC1284

Click on image for larger version.

An image like this shows that our galaxy is always "partly cloudy." Not unlike Earthly clouds that block parts of the sky (say on a starry night), tremendous clouds of gas and dust obscure the things that are beyond them. However, breaks in these galactic clouds can also be seen- even towards the densest part of our galaxy. M24 is the large oval collection of bluish stars that stands out among the others in the bottom right of this picture. To look at this stellar association of young and bright stars is to peer through a break in the obscuring clouds to places much deeper towards an inner spiral arm. The stars of M24 are many thousands of light years away (perhaps 10,000). The northern part of this starcloud boasts several dark nebula that provides contrast for all of the stars in the background. Near the bottom of the frame, IC 1284 glows bright red; while NGC 6590 scatters bluish light around a few bright stars.

Equipment

76mm Televue (480mm f/6.3 refractor)
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel

L R G B color production was used to create this image.

Luminance = 15 minutes (synthetic) binned 1x1
 Red = 15 minutes binned 1x1
 Green = 15 minutes binned 1x1
 Blue = 15 minutes binned 1x1
  • The image above is a three frame mosaic. The exposure information refers to each frame.
  • A synthetic luminance image means that the RGB data was added together to produce an image that would be manipulated (with non-linear stretching). This image was colored with the original RGB data files.

    • Minimum credit line: Fred Calvert/Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF

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    Updated: 06/18/2004