The sky was good, but bloody windy. Somehow Dempsey had a very eerie feeling last night, the winds were causing those old doors to open and close with squeeking sound. Some metal sign boards were also rattling with a high pitch tone. Then can also hear some people talking out of nowhere. Honestly I just want to test the Hyper colour (which I bought like 8 months ago) and quickly go home.
The Mallincam hyper colour is a full colour video camera which could do an amazing amount of integration before displaying it on the screen. Its 2 second integration is enough to match the Watec 120N (stellacam II) 8 second integration. And it has up to 12 seconds integration. It beats anything in the market now.
After setting up my small 8" LCD screen, I did a GOTO to M42. You guys won't believe what I saw at 12 second integration. My jaw dropped. The whole nebula spread across the entire 8" LCD. The nebulosity was so clear and coloured with red and blue. There is also a hint of the M43 nearby. I quickly ran to my car to grab my digicam camera, but as Murphy's law dictate, the battery failed at that very moment.
Unfortunately the scope was shaking due to the strong winds and the tracking has a bit of error (still learning how to use SS2000), so the image is a bit soft. But the nebulosity is very clear.
The best part is that there is almost no noise even at 12 seconds integration. I don't even need to switch on the peltier cooling.
It's amazing what video can do thesedays.
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." 
