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Also, what I have been hoping for personally is the ability to digitally produce 1080p "video". While it doesn't seem to be the main use for this camera I'm curious how it will perform for such output.

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Curtis,

The Universe doesn't have any video out capability, it's a single shot CCD camera with a USB interface. With it's software it can take a series of 5s, 10s, 30s or however long exposures you want and continue to do so until stopped. The software will display the image as it's downloaded from the camera and then update it when the next image is available. With the download times factored in you could see a continuous series of images every 5s or so (and maybe a little less), this would look something like really high resolution (higher than HD) video with a very very slow frame rate (12 frames/minute).

Real HD video with low noise and enough sensitivity to view anything but the brightest DSOs currently seems to be impossible with commercial cameras. It's not a problem on brighter stuff (witness the number of great solar system HD cameras for example). But with the constant improvements in sensors, amplifiers, and channels I think we're getting closer to your goal.

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The binning modes of the new software will make visual/video a little more interesting.

Full resolution is 3032 x 2018 pixels. 2x2 bin is 1516 x 1008. 4 x 4 bin images are 756 x 504 pixels. Exposure and image download times are significantly reduced in 2 x 2 and even more in 4 x 4.

I view on a screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution. A full resolution image is too big to fit on the screen. For practical purposes I'll probably leave the camera on 2 x 2 in use.

The cameras software is doing this anyway. Full resolution and 2 x 2 images are shown in the same sized window which takes up about 3/4 of the screen. 4 x 4 images appear to display as actual size, comparable to the image size of an Xtreme with the software I use.

Clear skies forecast tonight. I'll be able to do a bit more testing. I am particularly interested in the 4 x 4 mode and comparing the Universe sensitivity and image download times with Long Exposure Xtreme times. I already have a fair idea of what to expect based on what I've done so far but a fair idea may be far from what I will find from actually using the camera. Better to wait for the results than to post without really knowing.

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No it will not it is strickly made for the MC Universe.

Chris A

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No it will not it is strickly made for the MC Universe. Chris A

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yes it might be made "strickly" for the universe.That does not mean it wont work with other ccd's.

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TB - where did you get that idea Specific s/w 'reads' a specific sensors in a set pixel array and RGBG on-chip filter placement etc etc and every sensor is different and thus the odds the Universe s/w working with other [unspecified] sensors is highly unlikely and would be of little or no interest to Mallincam in this launch

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Lorence you do not have to always use the 2 x 2 bin mode and might not want to esp. when your using a focal reducer or very short focal length telescope. What you can do also is use the MC Universes software cropping tool which crops to any size you choose and maintains that crop even upon the next refresh.

Cheers,

Chris A
Astrogate

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