You hear a lot about the “video revolu-tion” in amateur astronomy lately. And insome places, like the Chiefland AstronomyVillage, you see it happening.The last time Iset up on the CAV’s Billy Dodd MemorialObserving field, every single one of the 10observers present was using a MallinCam.

Amateur astronomers are going deeperinto the Universe than ever with sensitivelong-exposure video cameras. It’s been said acamera like the MallinCam can triple theaperture of your scope, but that is actually anunderstatement. A 24-inch telescope mightshow the Horsehead Nebula under goodconditions, for example, but the Horse willnever look as sharply defined as it does inmyMallinCam-equipped C8. Nor will the bigscope show the color visible onmymonitor.

Sowhy isn’t everybody using a deep-skyvideo camera?Well, some people would stillrather do things the old-fashioned way, witheye and eyepiece. Includingme, till I decidedI wanted to see details, not just smudges, inthe years of observing left tome. I wanted togo beyond the NGC to the fiercely dim lit-tle PGC galaxies and other sprites thatmakeup the sky’s background.

But mostly what has kept deep-skyvideo from taking our avocation by stormhas been cost. The top-of-the-line

MallinCam Xtreme requires an investmentof $1500 for a basic setup.That has been toomuch for some amateurs, especially thosewho haven’t been able to see video in action.Yes, watching the live broadcasts on NightSikes Network on the web can give you anidea of what aMallinCam can do, butmanyfolks are understandably hesitant to part with

close to two thousand dollars without know-ing exactly what a camera will deliver withtheir scope and their skies.

There are some less expensive cameras,like the originalMallinCam Junior, but theyare limited in their capabilities due to their5-second exposure maximums. My experi-ence is that even a very sensitive camera

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 47

By “Uncle” Rod Mollise

The Video Revolution Cometh

Image 1 - Shown is the MallinCam Junior Pro with the included wireless exposure controland optional four-button remote.

The MallinCamJunior Pro

48 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

needs to be able to expose for at least 10-15seconds if you are to go beyond the brightestobjects.

The only other alternative for the cost-conscious astrovideographer has been off-the-shelf (non-astronomy) cameras like theSamsung SCB-2000.While it can expose forup to 10 seconds, its very small 1/3-inch chipand higher noise make it no more effectivethan the original Junior, which has a 1/2-inch CCD and has been optimized for as-tronomy.The Samsung and similar camerascan give you a taste of video astronomy for$100, but just a taste.

And there things remained till early thispast summerwhen I heard fromMallinCamdistributor JackHuerkamp that RockMallinwas preparing to release a new camera. Assoon as I heard the specs of the MallincamJunior Pro, I began to think it could be agame-changer.TheMallinCam Junior Pro isat heart a MallinCam Xtreme, just stripped

down a little so it can sell for $599. I knewthat if the Junior Pro could at least comewithin spitting distance of the Xtreme, itwould make a lot of y’all who’ve been waf-fling make up your minds to try video.

When I pulled Junior out of his boxwhen he arrived on the front porch ofChaosManor South, I was frankly amazed. Thenew camera not only looked a lot like anXtreme, it felt like one too. The solidity, thebuild quality, was there. The beauty wasn’tjust skin deep, either.The Junior Pro’s CCDchip, a 1/2-inch Sony ICX418AKL, is thesame one used in themore expensive camera.

That said, I was well aware of theTANSTAAFL factor: “There Ain’t No SuchThing As A Free Lunch.” Some compro-mises had to bemade to keep the Junior Pro’sprice down. The main difference betweenthe Junior and theXtreme is cooling.Unlikethe Xtreme, the Junior Pro’s CCD is notcooled. That means more thermal noise. Iwasn’t overly worried about that, however.My old Stellacam 2 deep-sky camera wasn’tcooled, either, and despite me running itwith the gain almost wide open to make upfor its 10-second exposure limit, I got somegood shots with it.

The Junior Pro’s exposure system hasalso been simplified. Junior’s exposure lengthis, like the Xtreme’s, virtually unlimited (99-hours), but how you set up those exposuresis different.TheXtreme allows you to set andexecute long exposures with either a laptopcomputer orwithMallinCam’swireless shut-ter controller. The Junior Pro does not fea-ture computer control of long exposures, so

you are required to use thewireless.The goodnews is that the wireless controller for theJunior Pro is included in the purchase price(Image 1).

Control of the camera’s other functionsis the same for both the Xtreme and the Jun-ior Pro. You can use the buttons on the cam’srear panel (Image 2) to access a settingsscreen (Image 3) on your videomonitor (notcomputer). If you don’t like small buttons ordon’t like touching the camera when it’smounted on the scope, you can purchase awired 4-button remote.

Or, you can set things like gain andshort exposures (2.1 seconds or less) using aprogram running on a PC. The Junior Pro’scontrol software is free and can be down-loaded from Jack Huerkamp’s website(http://waningmoonii.com). In order to usea computer with Junior, however, you willhave to purchase an optional serial cable.Un-like with the Xtreme, the cable is not in-cluded in the Junior Pro package.

What does come with Junior? In addi-tion to the camera, there’s a screw-on 1.25-inch nosepiece (threaded for filters), thewireless remote hand control, a wireless re-ceiver that plugs into the camera, avideo/power cable, and a small AC powersupply. The instructions for the camera areon printed pages and can also be down-loaded from Jack’s website.

How are the instructions?They are suf-ficient, and, supplemented by the advice youcan get from Jack, Rock, and plenty of expe-rienced users on the MallinCam Yahoogroup, will be enough to get most videonovices started. However, I’d very much liketo see a simplified, comprehensive manualaimed at beginners included in the box.

Any other nits your old Unk picked? Iwish a 12vdc power cablewere included (oneis available as an option). Inmost cases, run-ning the MallinCams off battery results incleaner looking video than can be achievedwith the stockACpower supplies.The cam-eras, and especially the Junior Pro, don’t drawmuch current and work well with the ubiq-uitous jump-start battery packs.

I was impressed by Junior’s build quality,

THE MALLINCAM JUNIOR PRO

Image 2 - Rear control panel of theMallinCam Junior Pro.

yeah, but the only true test of astro-gear isunder the stars. That turned out to be aproblem down here on the Gulf Coast dur-ing the summer of 2013. It was the wettest,cloudiest summer I can remember since1994. It took till late September before I gotan evening good enough to give the JuniorPro a fair evaluation.

When I finally got that clear night, Jun-ior and I headed tomy club’s dark site in thesuburbs-country transition zone.TheMilkyWay is usually visible, but this site is hardlyperfect due to a substantial light dome to theeast.My telescope? A video camerawill workfine with a modern (tracking) alt-azimuthmounted scope, but my current favoritevideo rig ismyCelestronEdge 800 SCT andVX German equatorial mount (Image 4).That combination is light, the go-to is ex-tremely accurate, and the telescope providesa good image scale for theMallinCams’ smallchips when equipped with an f/3.3 reducer.

I’d control the Junior Pro with a laptopcomputer just like I do the Xtreme, since Imuch prefer that tomashing tiny buttons onthe camera. But I still had to figure out thewireless shutter controller – I don’t use onewith the Xtreme. After a little fumblingaroundwith it, I gave up and read the “quick

start” instructions Jack put in the box, andsoon had Junior cranking out 15-second ex-posures.

What happened when I sent the C8 to

M13? At first, not much. A layer of cloudshad covered the Great Globular. But whenthey finally blew away, I was also blown away.I’m not sure what I’d expected, but what I

THE MALLINCAM JUNIOR PRO

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 49

Image 3 - On-screen settings shown on video monitor. Image 4 - For the purposes of this article, Uncle Rod tested the MallinCamJunior Pro with his Celestron Edge 800 SCT and VX German equatorial mount.

50 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

Image 5 - M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Image 6 - M15 globular cluster in Pegasus.

Image 9 - NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula. Image 10 - M27, the Dumbbell Nebula.

Image 7 - NGC 7331, the Deerlick Galaxy. Image 8 - Stephan’s Quintet.

THE MALLINCAM JUNIOR PRO

Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 51

Image 11 - M22 globular cluster in Sagittarius. Image 12 - M28 globular cluster in Sagittarius.

Image 15 - NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula. Image 16 - M27, the Dumbbell Nebula.

Image 13 - M16, the Eagle Nebula Image 14 - Stephan’s Quintet.

THE MALLINCAM JUNIOR PRO

got was a beautiful image of M13 (Image5). If I hadn’t known I was using the JuniorPro, I’d have sworn it was a MallinCamXtreme shot. There was a great big ball ofstars staring back at me frommymonitor infull-color glory.

I was impressed, but M13 is a brightMessier, one of the brightest globs in thesky. Just about any camera can do a goodjob with something like that. How about aless good globular cluster? LikeM15. Awaywe went. Again, I was flabbergasted at howsimilar the image was to what I am used towith the Xtreme. M15 (Image 6) with itstiny stars and intense core looked dadgumspectacular. It was still a Messier, though.How about something even harder? Likenearby NGC 7331, the Deerlick Galaxy?

Once more, I was taken by how closewhat I was seeing was to what I get with thetop MallinCam on a similar night. Thegalaxy’s golden hue was obvious. So werethe little NGC galaxies scattered across thefield, the “deer” at the deer lick. When the

seeing and transparency cooperated, I couldeven see traces of NGC7331’s subdued spi-ral armwith 15-seconds of exposure (Image7).

By the way, the images here are justsimple single-frame screen grabs. Otherthan a little adjustment of their curves, Ihaven’t done much processing. And rest as-sured the live video looks much better andshows more detail. It’s a testament to thequality of the Junior Pro’s images that thesestills look as good as they do.

How about Junior’s lack of cooling?Did that make a difference? Somedifference, yeah, but not a huge amount inmy opinion. There are, naturally, morewarm pixels than with the cooled cam, andthe backgrounds don’t look as smooth.Still, for me, video is about going deep andseeing lots of detail, not getting prettypictures. There was most assuredly plentyof detail visible in all objects bright anddim.

“Hokay, Unk, but what about ampli-

fier glow?” Because of the heat generated bytheir on-chip amplifiers, most CCD sensorswill show some glow in one of the cornersof the frame. The longer the exposure, es-pecially with an uncooled camera, themoreprominent this brightening will be. Therewas some visible in 20-second exposureswith the Junior, but I am happy to report itwas minor.

After the Deerlick, we were off to aneven more challenging target, the nearbyand legendary galaxy cluster, Stephan’sQuintet (Image 8). It was easily visible,though not showing much detail. That wasmainly because the approximately 800mmof focal length of the C8 and reducer com-bination was just not enough to show de-tails in such small targets. I could see thecluster, though, and that put to bed anyworries I had about the Junior Pro beingable to tackle the faint stuff. If I needed anymore reassurance in that regard, NGC6888, the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus pro-vided it. The Crescent’s notoriously dimloop showed up easily (Image 9).

By the time I’d done the Crescent andtheDumbbell (Image 10), another mess ofclouds was on the way. I had just enoughtime to do a quick run through the show-pieces of the south, though.They all fell be-fore Junior and all looked good. In fact,M22 (Image 11), M28 (Image 12), M16(Image 13), M17 (Image 14), and M8(Image 15) looked marvelous. See alsoImage 16 of M57, the Ring Nebula.

At no time did I feel overly handi-capped by using the Junior Pro instead ofthe Xtreme. I just enjoyed the pretty pic-tures as they appeared on my monitor oneafter another.

I had some other tests planned – longerexposures and filters – but the fricking-frak-ing clouds prevented that. Even so, I haveno hesitation in giving this camera a bigthumbs-up. It’s not just a relatively inex-pensive way to get into video; it is morethan capable of doing real work. If you’vebeen sitting on the video fence, muchachos,it’s time to hop off and give Jack a call. Youwant the Junior Pro.

52 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY

THE MALLINCAM JUNIOR PRO

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