PEterW
super member
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 242
Loc: SW London, UK
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Given that the mallincam/stellarcam etc are silicon based cameras, they should have good red sensitivty like the IIE/BIPH.
However these cameras might have UV/IR filters intrinsically added to make the visible colour images look nice, reducing the benefit.
Living under bad light pollution, would filters(e.g H-alpha) help a mallincam? I am especially interested to hear how the colour mallincam handles light pollution and whether adding an h-alpha filter would be beneficial? How sensitive is the colour mallincam to h-alpha emission?
How much colour can you see in objects with an 8"? Is this still true under bad light pollution?
Thanks
PEterW
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highfnum
super member
Reged: 09/06/06
Posts: 235
Loc: NY
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hi peter its john
I got both biph and mallincam
mallincam works pretty good in ha
here is a picture (worth a thousand words?!)
http://www.cloudynights.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=12957
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DFEmery
super member
Reged: 05/09/08
Posts: 118
Loc: Maine
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Peter...
I have a MallinCam MCHP and I can attest to the extraordinary color response of the camera. There are a number of objects that will simply 'blow your mind'... M42, as you have seen in the photo attached to the previous reply.... and also M27, M20, M16, M8 to name a few! My telescope is a Celestron C8 and it performs superbly with my MallinCam and an f/3.3 reducer.
Light pollution is really not a problem as I have seen from many images taken in city environments (I, however, live in a dark-sky area). As a matter of fact, the inventor, Rock Mallin, lives in the City of Ottawa and regularly views under significantly light-polluted conditions. This was one of the factors that encouraged him to develop the MallinCam, as I understand it, so that he could enjoy astronomy without having to travel.
The MallinCam does not have an intrinsic UV/IR filter, so you most certainly can take advantage of the red-wavelength response; and you can certainly add whatever filters you wish in the light path as you would with any eyepiece or conventional CCD camera.
In addition, there is a separate Digital Video Enhancer device that can be purchased that greatly enhances contrast and reduces noise when viewing under less-than-ideal conditions.
You may wish to visit Rock Mallin's Website or e-Mail him with these questions. I'm sure he can show you some examples of exceptional color images captured in light pollution... you will be amazed!
--Dave Emery
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Aquatone
member
Reged: 03/23/06
Posts: 85
Loc: Moraga, CA (Bay Area)
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Quote:
In addition, there is a separate Digital Video Enhancer device that can be purchased that greatly enhances contrast and reduces noise when viewing under less-than-ideal conditions.
Are there any "before and after" comparison images of how effectively the Digital Video Enhancer works? I am pretty impressed with my new Mallincam, but being under light polluted skies, if the Enhancer really does increase contrast and reduce noise I am definitely interested. There is nothing on the Mallincam website and I do not have any sense of how much of a difference it makes.
Chris
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Astro-Physics 160 EDF
Astro-Physics 10" Maksutov Cassegrain
Borg 77 ED
AP Mach 1.0 GTO
AP1200 GTO
Custom software development pipeline
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greg
sage
Reged: 01/25/05
Posts: 482
Loc: Central Ca.
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Hi Chris,
I did some before and after shots recorded on ZapLive, and if the weather permits I will be live on Saturday night Oct 17th at 7:30 PST
If you want to check out the recording and/or the live show, here's the Link: http://www.zaplive.tv/web/gregw
Greg
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Gravity is like a magnet to Humans...4 yr Old Marcus Gregory Allen W.
Not tonight honey I have a Telescope... Greg W.
16" F/3 Reflector GEM SiTech Servo Goto
4.5" F/4 Reflector Piggy Backed on The 16"
Meade 10" F/4 on CGE
6" F/5 Refractor
Celestron 102mm F/5
26mm T5 Nagler
13mm ETHOS
MallinCam Color Hyper Plus
9" Speco High Res. Color CRT Monitor
10' Home Dome
MallinCam Deep Space Observatory
Light polluted Backyard
Great Darksite 1.5 Hrs. Away
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PEterW
super member
Reged: 01/02/06
Posts: 242
Loc: SW London, UK
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So in summary, get a colour Mallincam and use filters (h-alpha) if you wish.... and the DVE may help to make things even better.
Cheers
PEterW
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Chris Schroeder
Postmaster
Reged: 12/11/04
Posts: 6558
Loc: N.E. WI Sky Glow
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That about sums it up. I live in LP skies (mag 3-4) and I was blown away by the amount of color I see in DSO with my 8" SCT and Mallincam.
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Chris
Mallincam Color Hyper Plus
10" DSH with SC DSC, CPC 800 XLT
M110 Doublet ED, AT 102Achro, ZS80FD 10th Anniv, ZS66SD, PST
CG5-AGT, EZ-Touch, Voyager
POD XL3 http://POD.SchroederCity.com
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DFEmery
super member
Reged: 05/09/08
Posts: 118
Loc: Maine
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To Aquatone...
Here is the link to the place on the MallinCam site that describes the DVE:
http://mallincam.tripod.com/id43.html
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johnnyha
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 11/12/06
Posts: 1123
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A lot can also be accomplished with the Mallincam alone that can bring out that extra detail as well, without filters. I like to tweak the gain and exposure, and the white balance can be readily adjusted, and there's a lot of other little adjustments - personally I never use a filter and I have captured video images of M42 from Los Angeles that literally made my jaw drop.
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Johnny
Spicewood, TX
Sherman Oaks, CA
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greg
sage
Reged: 01/25/05
Posts: 482
Loc: Central Ca.
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I have tried the IDAS L/P-2. I found that it worked well on very faint Nebula like the Owl, but on most objects it took to much light.... I will be trying it again when I get my tracking up to the task of 56 second exposures.
I think it will help most on objects that are low on the horizon, that are in heavy Light Pollution, like Helix, Thors Helmut, NGC 253, Southern Pinwheel.
Greg
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Gravity is like a magnet to Humans...4 yr Old Marcus Gregory Allen W.
Not tonight honey I have a Telescope... Greg W.
16" F/3 Reflector GEM SiTech Servo Goto
4.5" F/4 Reflector Piggy Backed on The 16"
Meade 10" F/4 on CGE
6" F/5 Refractor
Celestron 102mm F/5
26mm T5 Nagler
13mm ETHOS
MallinCam Color Hyper Plus
9" Speco High Res. Color CRT Monitor
10' Home Dome
MallinCam Deep Space Observatory
Light polluted Backyard
Great Darksite 1.5 Hrs. Away
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king1522
super member
Reged: 04/25/08
Posts: 194
Loc: Texas
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I tried out by brand spanking new IDAS light pollution last night here on the edge of Dallas city limits where the light pollution is absoulely horrible. It worked fabulous with my MC. M57 just popped out and M27 looked better with the filter. I also tried it on M31 and a couple of globs. It is a vast impovement over no filter. It amazes me what I can see with my Mallincam. Without it, I would be pretty much limited to planets and double stars.
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Don
Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The more you roll off, the faster it goes.
Celestron CPC 1100
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eeyore
newbie
Reged: 06/06/07
Posts: 4
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I am curious. What is a Digital Video Enhancer and where can it be obtained in the USA ?
Thx,
Gene Smith
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mclewis1
Thread Killer
Reged: 02/25/06
Posts: 3948
Loc: New Brunswick, Canada
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http://www.WaningMoonII.com ... Jack Huerkamp is the US distributor.
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Mark
C11, C6, APM/TMB115, and AT80ED - Tandem mount CGE and CG-5A, WO EZ-Touch and AT Voyager
25x100s and 8x56s, T-Mount Light, Mark 1 eyeballs - Modded 350D, DSI-P, SPC900, Mallincam
Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean that you should
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eeyore
newbie
Reged: 06/06/07
Posts: 4
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Hi Mark,
Thanks for the response. However, there does not appear to be anything about the device at the link you provided, or even acknowledgement that the device is available.
Gene
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mclewis1
Thread Killer
Reged: 02/25/06
Posts: 3948
Loc: New Brunswick, Canada
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Send Jack an email or PM, he just hasn't updated the website with the product info.
Manufacturers info - Link
If you want to read a bit about it's use there are a few threads here on CN Link
There are also comments and discussion about the DVE on the Mallincam Group on Yahoo.
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Mark
C11, C6, APM/TMB115, and AT80ED - Tandem mount CGE and CG-5A, WO EZ-Touch and AT Voyager
25x100s and 8x56s, T-Mount Light, Mark 1 eyeballs - Modded 350D, DSI-P, SPC900, Mallincam
Just because you can doesn't necessarily mean that you should
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