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David Malin | |
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 David Malin looking at a poster aboutMalin 1, a galaxy found by him | |
| Born | (1941-03-28)28 March 1941 (age 84) Bury, Lancashire, England |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
David Frederick MalinAM (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, which he discovered in 1986 and which is the largestspiral galaxy so far discovered.
Malin was born in 1941 and raised inHeywood, Greater Manchester, in the north of England. He was trained as a chemist and originally worked as amicroscopist. In 1975 he moved toSydney to take up a job with the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), now theAustralian Astronomical Observatory.
Whilst working at the AAO, Malin developed severalphotographic processing techniques to maximise the ability to extract faint and low contrast detail from the non-linear response and high densities ofphotographic plates.
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 aremonochromatic; if colour pictures are required, three images are needed. During his career at the AAO, Malin made about 150 three-colour images ofdeep sky objects, mostly using plates taken with the 4-metre (160 in)Anglo-Australian Telescope and the 1.2-metre (47 in)UK Schmidt Telescope.
The true-colour images are assembled from three separate monochromatic photographs taken throughred,green andbluefilters. Each photographic plate is a specialblack and whiteemulsion designed for low light conditions and is further enhanced for low light sensitivity by baking in anitrogen andhydrogen atmosphere. Theexposure times are relatively long, varying between 5–60 minutes for each colour, depending on theluminosity of the object. The colour image is re-assembled in thedarkroom, where further techniques such asunsharp masking to enhance fine detail might also be applied.
In 1986 he discoveredMalin 1, a giantspiral galaxy located 1.19 billionlight-years (366 Mpc) away in the constellationComa Berenices, near the North Galactic Pole.[1] As of February 2015[update] it is the largestspiral galaxy so far discovered, with an approximate diameter of 650,000 light-years (200,000 pc).[2][3][4]
Since the early 1990s, silver-basedastrophotography 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)[5] and ten books.[6]
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.
Minor planet4766 Malin discovered byEleanor Helin is named after him.[16]
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