Sky and Telescope - October 2017 - 59

ing software and using the SkyRaider
to take deep-sky and planetary images.
I wish more manufacturers would do
this. A folder on the memory stick is
labeled "MallinCamSky Drivers" despite
the fact that it also contains the camera
control software and the manual. All
these things are in a single compressed
ZIP ﬁle that you manually extract and
install using File Manager in Windows.
An automated installation program is
something MallinCam should consider.
When I saw the computer requirements, I got worried. The manual warns
"performance is not guaranteed" if the
camera is not operated with a computer
having a 2.8-GHz dual-core processor,
2.0 GB of RAM, 200 MB of hard drive
space, and a USB 3.0 connection. My
laptop didn't meet all these specs, coming up short with a 2.2 GHz processor
and USB 2.0. Would I have to round up
another PC to properly test the SkyRaider? Fortunately, that didn't turn out
to be the case.
My Toshiba laptop was more than
powerful enough to run the MallinCamSky software and operate the camera in
imaging and deep-sky video-observing
modes; the USB 3.0 speed is mostly
required to achieve the camera's fastest
frame rates when imaging the planets.

Deep-Sky Imaging
First light for the SkyRaider went
smoothly. I mounted the camera on my

80-mm f/7 William Optics refractor to
provide a generous ﬁeld on the camera's
modest chip. In the control software,
at the top left sidebar menu list, is a
hyperlink, "SkyRaider DS2.3 Plus." I
clicked it and was almost immediately
greeted by a video stream showing the
bright star the telescope was aimed at.
Focusing was easy using 2-second exposures, and within minutes I was ready
to begin shooting deep-sky targets.
The camera's software includes
many useful features. In addition to
the sidebar, which contains 15 separate
menu items, there's a command menu
across the top of the screen that offers
a multitude of image-processing tools.
While it was a lot to take in on the ﬁrst
night, the quick-start guide helped steer
me in the right direction.
Before taking images, I changed
some of the preliminary settings. I
selected the camera's highest resolution
mode and set its bit depth to 12 bits to
ensure the camera would record images
with the largest available dynamic
range. I also made sure the cooling fan
was running to reduce thermal signal
in the images, though I still needed to
record and subtract dark frames from
my shots to eliminate some false "stars"
caused by heat.
The SkyRaider DS2.3 Plus can make
single exposures as long as 16 minutes and 45 seconds. Since my sky was
relatively bright, I began by choosing

The rear panel of the
camera includes a USB
3.0 port, an autoguiding port, and the cooling fan. To the left of
the USB port is a blue
LED power indicator.
Users should cover the
LED when recording
deep-sky images.

p The camera features a 2.3-megapixel Sony
IMX302 CMOS sensor, seated just behind the
C-thread housing. Users may need to provide
their own C-to-T-thread adapter to attach the
camera to some telescopes and accessories.

2-minute exposures in the software's
Trigger Mode (long-exposure) section.
I then covered the telescope's aperture,
and in the Dark Field Correction menu,
commanded the software to take ten
2-minute dark frames. The software
doesn't just take dark frames; it automatically stacks them to produce what
the manual calls a "Dark Field" image.
When the darks were done, I simply
checked the box that would automatically apply this calibration frame to my
pictures, and saved it for future use.
The rest was rather straight forward.
I pointed the telescope at the galaxies
M81 and M82, adjusted the histogram
for a picture that wasn't too bright or
too dark, and set up a sequence in the
Trigger Mode window's options menu
that would automatically expose and
save 30 individual 2-minute frames.
As the images began coming in, I could
tell the camera was doing a credible
job despite the light pollution. M81's
delicate spiral arms were visible, if not
prominent, while M82 displayed plenty
of core detail.
The following night I was in the
backyard again, this time with my
8-inch f/10 Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. The longer focal length of the
SCT, even when equipped with an f/7
focal reducer, meant the SkyRaider's
ﬁeld was much smaller than with the
refractor. But this works well for "closes k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * O C T O B E R 2 0 17

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Sky and Telescope - October 2017

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