Here is a couple of frame grabs taken from a video recording using my Mallincam colour astro video running at 28 second intergrations. This camera is not designed for dedicated imaging and is used mainly for viewing deep sky stuff in near real time in my light polluted Brisbane sky.
These are only frames taken from the video, no stacking or processing. We are having a blast with this camera as it shows me and my family,friends stuff we have no chance of seeing at the eyepiece in our suburban sky.
I have only had this camera out a dozen times and are still learning all its colour,gain exposure settings, but when the images appear on my 17 inch LCD screen in colour its so much fun.
We only use this camera for visual use in the backyard and I have only just worked out how to grab and store a video frame,so some of the objects may need some colour adjustment. The images on the screen always look much sharper and better when viewing live than the frame grabs I have done, I don't know why,it must be my capture system or me doing somethig wrong.
It was great fun the other month when Peter made his S/Nova discovery, my Brother in-law came over and we set the scope up at there was Peter's S/N in its tiny little host galaxy appearing on my 17inch screen in real time.
I will post some more as I have recorded lots of video but will have to get my Brother over to show me how to do the frame grabs again.The stars seem to bloom a little and I found out about a hidden setting on the camera to make them more pin-point so I will try this again next time I get it out, there are so many settings on this camera to learn.
I didn't know that there were colour cams of this type available for astro observing. Remarkable sensitivity. It would certainly add a great deal to suburban observing such as you describe. congratulations!
These are the only colour video camera to have the sensitivity and cooling on the ccd to go deep in under 28 seconds. I have only had the chance to use this camera in light pollution and with the gain turned up half as any higher the screen washes out with the light pollution. It easily shows up Mag 19 stars at 28 seconds. Can't wait to try it under pristine dark sky with the gain turned full up and at full 56 second intergration.
Should be alot of fun.
If anyone is looking at improving their visual observing experience especially in light polluted sky or for public meets and want to add colour to the objects in real time I can only give a very high recommendation to this remarkable video camera, so easy to use and fully upgradable as Rock Mallin improves them with new developments.
