David Frederick Malin (born 28 March 1941) is a British-Australian astronomer and photographer. He is principally known for his spectacular colour images of astronomical objects. A galaxy is named after him,
Malin 1
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Malin 1 is a giant low surface brightness (LSB) spiral galaxy. It is located away in the constellation Coma Berenices, near the North Galactic Pole. , it is the largest known spiral galaxy, with an approximate diameter of , thus over ...
, which he discovered in 1986 and which is the largest
spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Heywood, Greater Manchester
Heywood is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Lancashire. It had a population of 28,205 at the 2011 Census. The town lies on the south bank of the River Roch, east of Bury, ...
, in the north of England. He was trained as a chemist and originally worked as a
microscopist
Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...
. In 1975 he moved to Sydney to take up a job with the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), now the Australian Astronomical Observatory.
Whilst working at the AAO, Malin developed several
photographic
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
processing techniques to maximise the ability to extract faint and low contrast detail from the non-linear response and high densities of
photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a capture medium in photography, and were still used in some communities up until the late 20th century. The light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, typically thi ...
s.
These techniques were initially devised to enhance the scientific return from photography, but Malin is now best known for the series of three-colour wide field images of deep space objects which have been widely published as posters and in books around the world. Most professional astronomical photographs are
monochromatic
A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochro ...
; if colour pictures are required, three images are needed. During his career at the AAO, Malin made about 150 three-colour images of deep sky objects, mostly using plates taken with the
Anglo-Australian Telescope
The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) is a 3.9-metre equatorially mounted telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory and situated at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, at an altitude of a little over 1,100 m. In 20 ...
and the
UK Schmidt Telescope
The UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST) is a 1.24 metre Schmidt telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory (formerly the Anglo-Australian Observatory); it is located adjacent to the 3.9 metre Anglo-Australian Telescope at S ...
.
The true-colour images are assembled from three separate monochromatic photographs taken through red,
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...
and
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when ...
black and white
Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey.
Media
The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
emulsion
An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althou ...
designed for low light conditions and is further enhanced for low light sensitivity by baking in a
nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at seve ...
and
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic ...
atmosphere. The exposure times are relatively long, varying between 5–60 minutes for each colour, depending on the
luminosity
Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a s ...
of the object. The colour image is re-assembled in the darkroom, where further techniques such as
unsharp masking
Unsharp masking (USM) is an image sharpening technique, first implemented in darkroom photography, but now commonly used in digital image processing software. Its name derives from the fact that the technique uses a blurred, or "unsharp", negati ...
to enhance fine detail might also be applied.
In 1986 he discovered
Malin 1
__NOTOC__
Malin 1 is a giant low surface brightness (LSB) spiral galaxy. It is located away in the constellation Coma Berenices, near the North Galactic Pole. , it is the largest known spiral galaxy, with an approximate diameter of , thus over ...
, a giant
spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Coma Berenices
Coma Berenices is an ancient asterism in the northern sky, which has been defined as one of the 88 modern constellations. It is in the direction of the fourth galactic quadrant, between Leo and Boötes, and it is visible in both hemisphe ...
, near the North Galactic Pole. it is the largest
spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''
Since the early 1990s, silver-based
astrophotography
Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1840, but it w ...
has been largely superseded by digital sensors, but many of the technical advances Malin introduced to the field have been carried over to processing astrophotography on computers.
Malin has published over 250 academic papers on the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) and ten books.
In 2001 he retired from the AAO to concentrate on his own business, David Malin Images, which manages his image collection along with those of related photographers.
Jackson-Gwilt Medal
The Jackson-Gwilt Medal is an award that has been issued by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) since 1897. The original criteria were for the invention, improvement, or development of astronomical instrumentation or techniques; for achievement ...
,
Royal Astronomical Society
(Whatever shines should be observed)
, predecessor =
, successor =
, formation =
, founder =
, extinction =
, merger =
, merged =
, type = NG ...
* 1990: Rodman Medal of the
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
* 1993: Progress Medal, highest award of the
Photographic Society of America
The Photographic Society of America (PSA) is one of the largest, non-profit organizations of its kind. Established in 1934, it has expanded to include members of over 60 countries.
The mission of this association is to promote and enhance the ar ...
* 1993: Commonwealth Medal of the
Australian Photographic Society
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal ...
* 1994: University of NSW Press/Eureka Science Book Prize (for "''A View of the Universe''")
* 1998: Elected Fellow of the
International Academy of Astronautics
The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is an independent non-governmental organization established in Stockholm (Sweden) on August 16, 1960, by Dr. Theodore von Kármán, and recognized by the United Nations in 1996.
The IAA has elect ...
* 2000: Lennart Nilsson Award for outstanding imaging in science
* 2003: Honorary Doctorate of Applied Science from
RMIT University
RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia.
Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering cla ...
* 2006: Hubble Award of the Advanced Imaging Conference
* 2019: Member of the
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Go ...
Seed magazine
''Seed'' (subtitled ''Science Is Culture''; originally ''Beneath the Surface'') is a defunct online science magazine published by Seed Media Group. The magazine looked at big ideas in science, important issues at the intersection of science and s ...