SINGAPORE -- Tinymos, a small three-man startup in Singapore, is working on a prototype of a small aluminium-shell camera aimed at astronomy buffs.
The camera, called the Tiny1, will debut in November on Indiegogo, through which the team hopes it will become a reality on store shelves.
The company was set up in early 2014, and Chief Operating Officer Ashprit Singh Arora told Mashable the prototype is completely functional, but just needs a battery unit so that it can work untethered to a USB power source.
The three were at Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif., and captured some timelapses of the supermoon eclipse over the weekend with their Tiny1 prototype.
The eclipse, close up:
Grey Tan, Tinymos' managing director, explained that the yellow burst of light at the end is when the moon returns to its full luminosity at the end of the eclipse. The star shape is due to the shape of the aperture on the lens used:
He said the company hopes to eventually become the GoPro of stargazing. The GoPro started out as a small, consumer-focused action camera for amateurs that upstaged larger and more expensive equipment.
And as all the terrible smartphone shots of the supermoon showed us, our phones aren't quite ready to take the place of high-end astrophotography equipment just yet, so the Tiny1 has a gap in the market to fill, said Tan.
Moon set with Milky Way. We work and travel hundreds of miles, so that you may experience this sight unencumbered by thousands of dollars and pounds in equipment. Taken with #TinyMOS prototype at Carmel, CA. Check us out an sign up for our Indiegogo launch at www.tinymos.com! #milkyway #potd #apod #travel #astronomy #indiegogo #techcrunch A photo posted by TinyMOS (@thetinymos) on Sep 18, 2015 at 2:25pm PDT
The Tiny1's image sensor is built with better low light sensitivity than what you'd find on competing compact cameras. It also allows users to mount better lenses on its body, he said.
Tan, Arora and Chia Lih Wei, its chief technology officer, met at the National University of Singapore during a technology entrepreneurship module, where they came up with Tinymos as a project.
So far, they've raised S$200,000 (US$139,998) from angel investors and received a grant of S$250,000 (US$174,998) from a Singapore government fund for startups.
Tan says he estimates there is a niche base of about 2 million astronomy enthusiasts in North America that Tinymos will market its camera to first. If things kick off, you might start seeing the Tiny1 on store shelves soon after.
Space is the next frontier - we are making the camera for it! #tinymos #comingsoon #potd #milkyway #astro #explore #instadaily #nofilter #galaxy Find out at www.tinymos.com A photo posted by TinyMOS (@thetinymos) on Jun 30, 2015 at 11:06am PDT