Catalogued as Messier 24 and IC 4714, it is also known colloquially as the Sagittarius Star Cloud^[1], and sometimes referred to as the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud^[3].  M24 can be found in its namesake constellation, Sagittarius.

As the view towards the center of the Milky Way galaxy is obscured by vast clouds of dark dust, only a hole in the dust allows us to even see M24^[3].  When we do, however, we are greeted by a magnificent vista.  With objects that are between 10,000 and 16,000 light years distant, the cloud appears as a very large and dense population of stars, and features dark areas of dust that block light from more distant objects^[3].

Interestingly, M24 is one of only three Messier objects that isn't an actual deep sky object^[1].  There are, however, several catalogued celestial objects contained within its boundaries.  For example, prominent in the above image are four relative bright named objects:
      • An open cluster of stars, catalogued NGC 6603^[2,3], appears in the upper right corner of the image.
      • The red emission nebula Sh2-37^[3] can be observed in the upper left corner of the image.
      • Below and adjacent to Sh2-37 are two blue reflection nebulae: NGC 6590 on the left and NGC6589 on the right^[3].