M24 : Window to the Milky Way

Our annual pilgrimage to a grassroots astrophotography camp for like-minded imagers, held under the stunning SQM 21.5 skies of Lake Nillahcootie in northeast Victoria. It’s as much about community as it is about photons, and even without a camera this year, I wasn’t going to miss it!

Having recently parted with the Atik APX60, I arrived with no imaging gear, just a willingness to hang out, learn, and soak up the atmosphere (and the brisket). But thanks to my mate Blue, that changed quickly. “Try my camera on your little scope,” he said, handing me his ZWO ASI2600MC.

Cue a bit of a ‘Frankenstein’ operation, cobbling together a series of adapters, spacers, and whatever we could find to marry his colour camera to my long-idle Stellarvue SV70T (which hadn’t seen starlight in over five years). With some creative improvising, it came together. We were up and running under beautifully dark skies, clean, crisp, and near-perfect for broadband imaging.

For a target, we settled on Messier 24, also known as the Sagittarius Star Cloud. Unlike most Messier objects, M24 isn’t a single deep-sky object but rather a remarkably dense, unobscured patch of the Milky Way itself, essentially a window through the foreground dust. Spanning about 2 degrees across, it’s a spectacular region teeming with tens of thousands of stars, dark lanes, and small embedded clusters. Under dark skies, it’s visible to the naked eye as a bright, hazy patch, and in wide-field images, it’s one of the richest star fields in the sky.

This was my first real experience using a one-shot colour camera on such a classic broadband target, and I have to say, it was a pleasure. Everything worked surprisingly well until the inevitable winter fog rolled in sometime well after midnight and shut the session down… which was fine, it was zero degrees outside and by that time, the Starward whiskey was going down a treat! 

Still, it was a fun and spontaneous reminder of what’s possible with a bit of gear-sharing and a lot of goodwill. If you’ve never been to Camp Nillahcootie, make the effort, it’s low-key, welcoming, and packed with passionate, generous people. And yes, go for Steve’s 12-hour smoked brisket alone if you must. You won’t regret it!

About this Object.

Messier 24, also known as the Sagittarius Star Cloud. Unlike most Messier objects, M24 isn’t a single deep-sky object but rather a remarkably dense, unobscured patch of the Milky Way itself, essentially a window through the foreground dust. Spanning about 2 degrees across, it’s a spectacular region teeming with tens of thousands of stars, dark lanes, and small embedded clusters. Under dark skies, it’s visible to the naked eye as a bright, hazy patch, and in wide-field images, it’s one of the richest star fields in the sky.