thumb|250px|Three-colour photograph of the Horsehead Nebula taken by David Malin at the AAO

David Frederick Malin (born 28 March 1941) is a British-Australian astronomer and astrophotographer. it is the largest spiral galaxy so far discovered, with an approximate diameter of .

Since the early 1990s, silver-based astrophotography has been largely superseded by digital sensors, but many of the technical advances Malin introduced to the field have been carried over to processing astrophotography on computers.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 and fellow photographer's collections of images.

Awards

  • 1985: Henri Chrétien Award of the American Astronomical Society
  • 1986: Jackson-Gwilt Medal, Royal Astronomical Society
  • 1990: Rodman Medal of the Royal Photographic Society
  • 1993: Progress Medal, highest award of the Photographic Society of America
  • 1993: Commonwealth Medal of the Australian Photographic Society
  • 1994: University of NSW Press/Eureka Science Book Prize (for "A View of the Universe")
  • 1998: Elected Fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics
  • 2000: Lennart Nilsson Award for outstanding imaging in science
  • 2003: Honorary Doctorate of Applied Science from RMIT University
  • 2006: Hubble Award of the Advanced Imaging Conference
  • 2019: Member of the Order of Australia

The minor planet 4766 Malin, discovered by Eleanor Helin, is also named after him.

Selected publications

See also

  • Malin 1
  • List of largest galaxies

References

  • Astronomical Images at the Anglo-Australian Observatory
  • David Malin Images
  • "Photographer to the Stars", interview of Malin at Seed magazine, 28 July 2008
  • David Malin biography and gallery at The World at Night
  • "Steve and the stars", an Australian Astronomical Observatory video portraying David Malin among others