Open star cluster M23


UA 16-inch image of Messier 23

The bright but very sparse star cluster Messier 23 in Sagittarius, shown in an R-band CCD image obtained with the UA 16-inch telescope. The field of view shown is 20 by 30 arcminutes in extent. This is a big cluster - so big that even the full field of our imager barely distinguishes it from the background stars.

M23 is in the rich Milky Ray region toward the galactc bulge. We see it about 4 degrees north of the Trifid Nebula and 5 degrees north of the Lagoon Nebula.



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Last changes: 8/2006      © 2006