Messier 24 or sometimes called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud is one of the densest concentrations of stars visible in low power optical instruments. The dense concentration of stars as visible due to a lack of dust obscuring the Milky Way in this area.
This image includes the open cluster NGC 6603 just above the center, and several dark nebula that blot out the stars on the right side of the image. The star cloud lies at a distance of 10,000 to 16,000 light years from us.