Table of Contents
Related Manuals for Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-i
Summary of Contents for Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-i
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Page 1: Ccd Camera
Model ST-i CCD Camera Operating Manual Santa Barbara Instrument Group a Division of Aplegen, Inc. 147-A Castilian Drive Santa Barbara, CA 93117 Phone (805) 571-7244 • Fax (805) 571-1147 Email sbig @ sbig . com • Web www . sbig . com... - Page 2 We, Santa Barbara Instrument Group, a division of Aplegen, Inc., 147-A Castilian Drive, Goleta, CA 93117 USA, (805) 571-7244, declare under our sole responsibility that the Model ST-i CCD camera complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:...
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Page 3: Table Of Contents
Camera Lens Adapters..............23 5. Glossary ....................25 Appendix A – Connector and Cables ............29 Telescope Jack ................29 Appendix B – Camera Specifications............30 Appendix C – ST-i Color Camera Supplement........31 Appendix D – Dimensions and Backfocus ..........39... -
Page 4: Introduction
SBIG ST-i Manual 1. Introduction Congratulations and thank you for buying one of our ST-i CCD cameras. The ST-i has the following features: • Uses Kodak’s microlensed, KAI-0340 CCD with 648 x 486, 7.4 micron square pixels. • 16-bit A/D converter with correlated double sampling •... -
Page 5: Overview And Connections
GUIDE PORT: This is where you connect the supplied 6 conductor modular phone style cable to the Autoguider (sometimes labeled "CCD") input port on your mount when using the ST-i as an autoguider, or when using Track & Accumulate with mount corrections (see the CCDOPS... -
Page 6: Installing The Software On 32-Bit And 64-Bit Windows Systems
Cameras on your 32/64-bit Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. You should download and run the 64-bit Driver checker as described below whether you are installing the ST-i camera on a 32-bit Windows system such as XP, or a 64-bit version such as Vista 64 or Win 7. - Page 7 Guide Head capability to the ST Series and we call it the Pro Model. The Driver Checker needs to know whether your ST Series camera is a Classic Model or a Pro model. For the ST-i camera it does not matter which option you select...
- Page 8 SBIG ST-i Manual 5. After answering the Classic/Pro question above you'll see the following dialog. The list of drivers shown may be different on your system but it will generally indicate that no Installed Drivers were found and that they all need to be updated.
- Page 9 SBIG ST-i Manual 8. Now it's time to try out the new drivers. With your camera disconnected from the PC, then plug it into the PC with the USB Cable. In the lower-right hand corner of the screen you see something like:...
- Page 10 SBIG ST-i Manual On systems running 32-bit Windows such as XP you may see this: followed by the Hardware Wizard 9. Select "Install Automatically." If for some reason the Add New Hardware Wizard asks you to manually locate the drivers then navigate to the proper directory under the Driver Checker directory in the Program Files or Program Files (X86) directory.
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Page 11: Migrating Old Drivers From 32-Bit To Newer 64-Bit Systems
SBIG ST-i Manual Note: If you previously installed SBIG 32-bit drivers using the old 32- bit Driver Checker program and now want to install 64-bit drivers over the old installation, follow the procedure outlined below: Migrating Old Drivers from 32-bit to newer 64-bit Systems This section describes how to migrate drivers from the old 32-bit only DriverChecker to the new 32/64-Bit Compatible DriverChecker64. - Page 12 SBIG ST-i Manual g. Quit the Device Manager. 4. Install the new DriverChecker64 software. Use the installer that came with your camera or download it from our web site: <www.sbig com> 5. Run the DriverChecker64 software. From the Start menu select the DriverChecker64 item in the SBIG folder.
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Page 13: Using The Camera Inside
SBIG ST-i Manual 2. Using the Camera Inside When you first receive the ST-i it’s wise to get acquainted with its operation inside the house where it’s warm and not to try to struggle with the telescope operation in the dark. We’ve included a brief tutorial below to get you acquainted with the ST-i and the CCDOps software. - Page 14 SBIG ST-i Manual This is what’s referred to as a dark frame and it’s what you get when you take a picture with the nosepiece covered and the shutter closed. It’s a picture in the dark. Although there’s not much interesting to look at in this image there are some very important features that you need to understand.
- Page 15 SBIG ST-i Manual Hot pixels are simply the pixels where the dark current is higher than the average and thus they show up as white specs against the salt and pepper background. Again, this is completely normal for CCD images.
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Page 16: Brightness And Contrast
CCD images. Brightness and Contrast Images from the ST-i are 16-bit images meaning any pixel can have values from 0 to 65,535 ADU where ADU is short for A/D Converter Units. Said another way this means there are 65,536 possible brightness or gray scale values that each pixel can have. -
Page 17: Establishing A Link
SBIG ST-i Manual and decrease. Click the ones adjacent to the Range setting and you’ll see the image contrast increase and decrease. Here’s a summary of how this works: Increasing the Back decreases the image brightness and vice-versa. Increasing the Range decreases the image contrast and vice-versa. -
Page 18: Camera Info
PC after a power-up sequence, which makes it very easy for us to update the ST-i in the field. To make sure you have the latest firmware periodically run the Driver Checker, which checks our servers for later drivers and updates your system accordingly. -
Page 19: Camera Setup
Finally, review the information presented, then close the dialog by clicking in it. Camera Setup Use the Setup command in the Camera menu to see the ST-i Camera Setup dialog shown below. The key items in this dialog are described individually below. -
Page 20: Grab Command
SBIG ST-i Manual Grab Command Let’s take a dark frame with your new camera. If you haven’t done so already, screw in the nosepiece and put the rubber cap on it. While the shutter was designed to block light from the telescope for dark frames, it can’t block flooding room light from leaking around the edges of the shutter... -
Page 21: Focus Command
SBIG ST-i Manual Note: Dark subtracted images have an offset of 100 ADU added to them to ensure values near zero are not clipped. Focus Command Using the Grab command to focus your telescope would drive you crazy, taking a single image at a time, tweaking the telescope, etc. Instead we use the Focus command, which is like Grab but it takes image after image automatically. - Page 22 SBIG ST-i Manual Frame Size – Planet mode allows you to select a portion of the CCD’s field of view (FOV) for faster rep rates due to smaller downloads. It’s great for focusing the telescope on a star. The other three Full settings all show the full FOV of the CCD but are slower than Planet mode because there’s more data to download.
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Page 23: At The Telescope
With the fast update rate of the ST-i camera, use the Full frame mode to focus, or screen update rate can be increased significantly by using Planet mode. -
Page 24: Finding And Centering The Object
SBIG ST-i Manual Resolution Saturation Counts High Res ~65,000 Med/Low Res ~65,000 Once the best focus is found, the focusing operation can be greatly shortened the second time by removing the camera, being careful not to touch the focus knob, and inserting a high power eyepiece. Slide it back and forth to find the best visual focus (don’t touch the focus knob), and then... -
Page 25: Acessories For Your Ccd Camera
This section describes several of the common Accessories designed to work with the ST-i. Tripod Mounting Ring The tripod mounting ring is a split ring that clamps around the ST-i body and provided a 1/4-20 threaded hold for mounting to a piggyback mount or tripod mount. - Page 26 SBIG ST-i Manual ST-i Options: A. 1.25" Filter (UV/IR filter recommended for color camera) B. C-mount adapter C. C-mount lens (SBIG offers 100mm FL f/2.8 for guiding) D. C-to-T Adapter E. C-to-F Adapter F. eFinder Assembly G. 35mm Nikon or Canon FD lens (user supplied)
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Page 27: Glossary
SBIG ST-i Manual 5. Glossary Antiblooming- When a CCD pixel has reached its full well capacity, electrons can effectively spill over into an adjoining pixel. This is referred to as blooming. Kodak CCDs like the KAF-0402LE with the antiblooming option can be used to help stop or at least reduce blooming when the brighter parts of the image saturate. - Page 28 SBIG ST-i Manual dark. The shutter covers the CCD. Dark Frames are subtracted from normal exposures (light frames) to eliminate fixed pattern and dark current noise from the image. Dark Frames must be of the same integration time and temperature as the light frame being processed.
- Page 29 CCD down to operating temperature. The CCD is mounted to the TE Cooler which is mounted to a heat sink, usually the camera head housing (Note: TE cooling is not used on the ST-i camera). TIFF Image File Format - The TIFF image file format (which stands for...
- Page 30 SBIG ST-i Manual co-register and co-add (including dark frame subtraction) a series of images of an object. These exposures can be taken unguided as long as the "Snapshot time" does not exceed the length of time before tracking errors of your clock drive become apparent. This allows you to image and track without guiding or the need to connect the CCD Relay port to your drive motors.
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Page 31: Appendix A - Connector And Cables
SBIG ST-i Manual Appendix A – Connector and Cables Telescope Jack The Telescope Jack is used to provide tracking signals to the tele- scope drive. Viewed from outside the camera, looking in, it has the following pin-out: The Left, Down, Up and Right... -
Page 32: Appendix B - Camera Specifications
SBIG ST-i Manual Appendix B – Camera Specifications The table below lists the specifications for the ST-i camera. Specifications are typical and can vary from camera to camera and are subject to change without notice. Kodak KAI-0340 Pixel Array 648 x 486 Pixel Size 7.4 x 7.4 microns... -
Page 33: Appendix C - St-I Color Camera Supplement
This effect is also normal, and is caused by the RGB color mask that is covering the CCD. Single-Shot Color (SSC) cameras like the ST-i produce raw images that CCDOps displays as monochrome until they are color processed. The Color Process command in the Single Shot Color menu of the Utility menu convents these raw images into color as shown in the dialog box shown below. - Page 34 SBIG ST-i Manual camera control software to acquire your single-shot color images, make sure to save them in either SBIG or 16-bit FITS file format. You should not crop, resize, or flip the image (using 3rd party software) before importing it into CCDOPS for one-shot color processing.
- Page 35 SBIG ST-i Manual The image below is a screen captures of the single step process and the dialog box shows the settings in their default positions using DDP as the method: Step 1: Capture the image and save the raw data - it will appear monochrome on the computer screen when first downloaded from the camera.
- Page 36 SBIG ST-i Manual Tip: While in the Single Shot Color Processing dialog box, click on any slider, then use the keyboard right and left arrow keys to make fine adjustments. You can save the final color image as a TIFF file at any time by selecting File ->...
- Page 37 SBIG ST-i Manual Enhancements Images of galaxies tend to have a lot of dynamic range and you may find it difficult to reveal the faint details in the arms without causing the core to saturate. Try selecting the DDP instead of RGB in the "Method" drop down box.
- Page 38 SBIG ST-i Manual To do this using CCDOPS select Utility --> Single Shot Color --> Extract Color Channel(s)... The Color Extraction dialog box will open and give you the option to extract any (or all) of the individual color channels (Red,...
- Page 39 SBIG ST-i Manual 2. Normalize the Sky Background - Normalizing the Sky Background means making sure it comes out a neutral gray in the final image, not having a subtle color tint. Bring the Red image to the foreground and then position the Crosshair on an area of the image that represents the Sky Background, free of any stars or faint nebulosity.
- Page 40 You didn’t used to be able to do this and many people don’t realize that now you can use SBIG patented Track and Accumulate with Single Shot Color (SSC) cameras like the ST-i. CCDOps has been updated to recognize SSC cameras and Track and Accumulate will then make sure it co-aligns...
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Page 41: Appendix D - Dimensions And Backfocus
SBIG ST-i Manual Appendix D – Dimensions and Backfocus...