Virtual Observing Sessions over the internet with Mallincam

Not sure where to post this but....

Some of you may have seen me mention the Mallincam in a few of my posts. Its a Video Astronomy camera that integrates exposures on the fly Live. I've been thinking about getting one. Anyway, Yahoo have a Beta service called Yahoo Live. Its a kind of webcam chatroom type thing. Well some bright sparks over at cloudynights saw the possibilities and have combined the two!

So if ever you are depressed at our endless cloudy nights. Pop over to this page

www.deepsky.dk/

Its a preview page with a load of Mallincam owners Yahoo Live Channels. Click on someone who is broadcasting and join in on a virtual observing session!! The only problem at the moment is that there aren't many mallincam owners live in Europ or OZ etc yet. Mostly yanks and Canadians so far so it means late nights for Europeans watching American Channels.

Hey PJ, you are an insomniac. You're always posting in the wee small hours like me. Have a look.

Hey PJ, you are an insomniac. You're always posting in the wee small hours like me. Have a look.

Will do.

One other thing to note is that while Yahoo Live is a beta project at the moment, so too are most of the mallincam owners. MOst only have their cams a few weeks and are still learning the ropes and how to get the best out of them for a given object. So while they are still honing there skills the views might not be spectacular but give it a few weeks/months and I would say we will start seeing consistantly great images. And of course our streamed view from the cams via a capture card on the users laptop does not compare at all to the view he actually sees on his monitor.

Still, even though truely great live views of objects are a little few and far between at the moment, I have enjoyed the chat and the craic with observers from all over the world thus far. Lets hope yahoo live survives so we can see what these guys can really do with the cams once the get a handle on this specific technology