I mentioned in another post that my dew heater controller had decided to self-combust and not work anymore.

I spent some time tracking down the parts and components that I needed to make a combined power distribution box and dew heater controller. It’s not anything fancy, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s cheap. That’s really it’s only saving grace. There are no fancy custom PCBs or 3D printing here. It’s certainly not a Pegasus AstroPower Box or a Wanderer Astro device…

The new power distribution / dew heater controller box is on back-burner for the moment as I track down some issues I’ve run into. I suspect my larger dew heater band has a short circuit somewhere and I need to track that down before I can safely image again. (Let’s leave out the terrible weather and lack of cloud-free nights we’ve had lately…)

So whilst the rig is out of action (for the most part), I decided to go back and try my hand at reprocessing some old data. I do like the M42 image I captured about 18 months ago, so thought it a good option for re-processing with my updated tools and workflow.

According to Wikipedia:

Catalogued as Messier 17 or M17, the Omega Nebula (also known as the Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, Lobster Nebula, and the Horseshoe Nebula) is an H II region in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1745. Charles Messier catalogued it in 1764

M17 lies between 5,000 and 6,000 light-years from Earth and it spans some 15 light-years in diameter. The cloud of interstellar matter of which this nebula is a part is roughly 40 light-years in diameter and has a mass of 30,000 solar masses. The total mass of M17 is an estimated 800 solar masses.

Each year Philip Island hosts their Annual Whale Festival. It’s a good excuse to get out of the house for a weekend of cetacean-based learning, fresh air and the opportunity to get some astro images.

Some of the Festival’s lectures are very interesting - this year it was a pair of lectures on whale evolution and one on the (sadly now extinct) Giant Killer Sperm Whales. If you can get along to it, I recommend it.

The weather here has been pretty poor lately - lots of cloudy or very cold nights (with lots of condensation and damp) that don’t really inspire me to get outside and start imaging.

There are a few targets that are only visible to me for a few months of the year, and M16 (Messier 16) is one of them. It goes by a swag of other names, so you may be used to seeing it called something else.

In my last update I mentioned the ‘Egg’ in the bottom right corner of my image of NGC6188 and how it would make a good target for the Megalens. Well, my chance came around a lot sooner than I expected.

I also think it’s fair to say that this image will be the last from the Megalens - it’s just not cut out for astro work. I’ll be saving my pennies from here on for an upgrade / companion to the SW72ED. Right now, I have my eye on the new Apertura CarbonStar 150 reflector.

If you’re a long-term reader of this site you’ll be aware of my standout image from 2023 - NGC6188 (“The Fighting Dragons of Ara”), which can be seen here. I have this image printed at A1 and framed for display.

It’s been a very cloudy year do far, and good nights for imaging have been few and far between. So I though I’d go back and try my hand at reprocessing some of my old data and see what eventuated.

I had another clear night and the opportunity to tweak the Megalens and it’s focus settings.

If you’re struggling with getting focus working with KStars/Ekos, then I recommend the series of videos on YouTube by John Evans. (https://www.youtube.com/@johneevans1) He’s the lead(?) programmer for the KStars/Ekos focus module and he’s been working on it for quite some time to sort out bugs, improve easy-of-use and implement new features.

The target for this image was M83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. It’s quite high in the sky at the moment, with an early meridian of around 11pm. So a bright target that’s out of the light pollution dome. (For the most part - the LP here is not good, and the entire sky is usually a medium grey colour.)

First light for the Megalens

If you’ve been following along, you’ll be aware that I constructed a telescope mount and auto-focus setup for my 1000mm camera lens. (See here for the write-up.)

I finally had some clear skies (well, mostly clear skies!) and jumped at the chance to test it out - and to see just where the focal point was for the lens and my usual camera setup.

A supernova almost “right next door”

Supernova SN2024ggi was detected on April 11th, 2024, in the nearby galaxy NGC3621. This galaxy is part of the group of galaxies nearby to the Milky Way. 22 million light years is (by human standards) a very, very, very big distance. By astronomical standards it’s the equivalent of the house next door.

Contrary to what people think, supernovae are very common - it’s just that the vast majority of them are so far away they are effectively invisible to us.