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Orion 52084 Instruction Manual

Deep space color imaging camera
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InStruCtIOn Manual
Orion
StarShoot
Pro
®
™
Deep Space Color Imager
#52084
Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975
Customer Support (800) 676-1343
E-mail: support@telescope.com
Oriontelescopes.com
Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000
89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076
IN 336 Rev. B 02/09

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  • Page 1 InStruCtIOn Manual Orion StarShoot ® ™ Deep Space Color Imager #52084 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 Customer Support (800) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope.com Oriontelescopes.com Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076 IN 336 Rev. B 02/09...

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Welcome to the exciting world of astro-imaging. Your new StarShoot™ Pro Deep Space Color Imaging camera is capable of capturing impressive celestial objects like galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae, as well as the planets, Moon, and the Sun (with an optional solar filter). You can showcase spectacular images on your computer, share them on the internet, or print them.
  • Page 3 Filter ......... . 26 Color Balance .

  • Page 4: Getting Started

    (Figure 2a). The camera is also compatible with 1.25" focusers that include camera T-threads. Caution: Be sure to always firmly tighten the thumbscrew(s) that secure the StarShoot Pro in the telescope focuser, or it could fall out and onto the ground! (refer to Figure 1)
  • Page 5 Some telescopes (such as refractors) may require the use of an extension tube (avail- able from Orion) to provide enough outward focus for the StarShoot Pro. The large 1.8" format imaging chip gives the StarShoot Pro an ample field of view through most telescopes.
  • Page 6 Power input jack Figure 3. The 12VDC power cable and USB cable turn the camera on when plugged in. Mount Deep sky imaging with the StarShoot Pro requires an equatorial mount with a right ascension (R.A.) motor drive. The goal for your mount is to seamlessly track the apparent movement of the sky as the Earth rotates.

  • Page 7: Software And Driver Installation

    • Video Display: 1024 X 768 or higher, 16-bit color or higher • Mouse • Internet Explorer 4 or higher required to display on-line help • High-speed USB 2.0 port Power The StarShoot Pro requires 12 volts DC (12VDC) with approximately 1 ampere of current.
  • Page 8 To install the camera driver on a Windows XP computer: 1. Insert the CD-ROM into the computer. 2. Connect the Orion StarShoot Pro to a USB port on the computer with the supplied USB cable. 3. Plug the supplied power cable into a 12VDC power source and connect the cable to the StarShoot Pro.
  • Page 9 To install the camera driver on Windows Vista computer: 1. Insert the CD-ROM into the computer 2. Connect the Orion StarShoot Pro to a USB port on the computer with the supplied USB cable. 3. Plug the supplied power cable into a 12VDC power source and connect the cable to the StarShoot Pro.

  • Page 10: Getting Started During Daylight

    1⁄2" circle. If you are using a refractor telescope, then the hole should be cut so it is centered on the piece of cardboard. If you are using a reflector that has a central aperture obstruction, then the hole should be cut off to one side (in order to bypass the central obstruction).
  • Page 11 Because the StarShoot Pro is sensitive to light, an aperture mask is needed on the telescope for any imaging during daylight. For a refractor, the hole should be centered on the aperture mask. For a reflector, the hole should be off to one side of the aperture mask.
  • Page 12 Try making another aperture mask with a diameter of only 1⁄4". 10. Turn the telescope’s focus knob so the focuser drawtube moves slowly inward. The drawtube needs to go approximately 18mm inward from where the eyepiece focuses (for most eyepieces).

  • Page 13: Screen Stretch Window

    Range of brightness levels Screen Stretch Window The function of the Screen Stretch Window (Figure 8) is to properly map the image brightness levels captured by the camera into corresponding image brightness levels on the computer screen. A typical camera image has each pixel (light detecting site, over six million pixels form a single StarShoot Pro image) represented as a number (from 1 to 65535) depending on brightness.

  • Page 14: Astronomical Imaging

    of the mouse. To do this, hold down the Shift key, then left-click and drag the mouse on the image. You’ll find this feature to be a great convenience when fine adjusting the screen stretch to get an image to look its best. Instead of using the Screen Stretch Window, it is faster to use the Quick Stretch facility.

  • Page 15: Focusing

    2. Center your telescope on the star using an eyepiece. Make sure the right ascension (R.A.) tracking motor is engaged on your mount. 3. Replace the eyepiece with the StarShoot Pro.
  • Page 16 Note: If the StarShoot Pro is grossly out of focus, no object will appear in the image, not even a blur. Increase the exposure time if needed and patiently move through the focus range of your telescope until you see the centered star come into view.

  • Page 17: Imaging Deep Sky Objects

    Longer exposures of 60 seconds or more also require autoguiding with a separate camera. The Orion StarShoot AutoGuider can be operated with the StarShoot Pro in MaxIm DL Essentials.

  • Page 18: Dark Frames

    7. Click Expose, and the camera will commence taking the images. Note: When the camera is taking long exposure images, it is critically important not to touch, shake, or otherwise disturb the telescope, or a blurred image will result. Also, make sure no surrounding light shines into the telescope during the exposure.

  • Page 19: Flat Fields

    6. Click Expose, and Maxim DL Essentials will indicate the camera needs to be covered to take a dark frame. Cover the front of the telescope you are imaging through, and then click OK. The camera will commence taking and saving the dark frames.
  • Page 20 1. Ensure that the telescope is focused and ready for astro-imaging. 2. Point the telescope at a uniform and featureless light source, like the sky at dusk or dawn, or a blank white sheet of paper. Make sure the camera...

  • Page 21: Image Processing

    4. Select Single in the box beneath Mode. 5. Set the Seconds to 0.1 for now and click Expose. You want the Max Pixel to read somewhere around 20000. Adjust the exposure time as needed until the Max Pixel is close to 20000. 6.
  • Page 22 Calibrate box in the Camera Control window. However, for best results, we recommend manually subtracting the dark frames from each light image to make sure the calibration worked properly. If, for example, your telescope had a light leak when the dark frames were taken, it could ruin your light images.

  • Page 23: Flat Field Calibration

    This process can be automated for all of your light images, see “Batch Processing”. Flat Field Calibration Calibrating your flat field images is done in the same way as calibrating your dark frames, but you also need to subtract dark frames for your flat field images. To flat field calibrate: 1.

  • Page 24: Combining Deep Sky Images

    Figure 17a. Before your images are combined, an individual deep space image will have more noise and less detail. Figure 17b. Combining multiple deep space images greatly increases the detail in the resulting combined image Combining Deep Sky Images Each individual deep sky image is faint and has a noticeable amount of noise. Combining the individual deep sky images eliminates the noise and enhances the detail in the deep sky object by improving the signal to noise ratio.
  • Page 25 Note: In addition to Average mentioned above, 3 other different combining methods can be chosen: Sum, Median, and Sigma-Clip. To learn more about these combine methods, see “Image Processing – Combine Methods”. The program automatically moves to the next image. Center the crosshairs on the same star in this new image, and left-click again.

  • Page 26: Combine Methods

    Set the Screen Stretch Window to Medium (or otherwise manually adjust for best image appearance), and use Save under the File menu to save your image. You can now perform any wanted imaging processing. Combine Methods We previously mentioned in “Imaging Deep Sky Objects” that Average is one of the methods to combine your images.

  • Page 27: Color Balance

    The sensitivity of most CCD cameras as a function of wavelength (color) is dif- ferent from the response of the human eye. The filters used for creating color composites also have their own characteristics, as do the telescope optics. Although “perfect” color rendition is an elusive if not impossible goal (all indi- viduals see colors slightly differently), it is straightforward to get “good”...

  • Page 28: Stretch

    necessary to equalize the image background in all three color planes. The Reset button resets the background level subtraction to zero on all planes. Scaling adjustment (entered as a percentage) allows you to compensate for transmittance differences between the filters used to acquire the three color planes.

  • Page 29: Recommended Processing Sequence

    There are three elements which must be set: the Permanent Stretch Type, the Input Range, and the Output Range. You can use the Preview Image to see how changing these parameters will affect the resultant image (or click the Full Screen button to see the changes applied to your actual image). You can also open the Screen Stretch Window to see how changing these param- eters change the histogram.

  • Page 30: Note On File Format

    beginning and stack individual images again! note on File Format When saving images (using Save or Save As in the File menu), you have a choice of file formats. The default produces .fit files, but .tif, .jpg, .png, and .bmp file formats can also be selected.

  • Page 31: Using The Starshoot Pro As An Autoguider

    1. Select the image file you want to process from your computer using the Select Files button. Use CTRL-click to select individual files, and SHIFT- click to select a range of files. You can see the path for the selected files by turning on the Show Path check box.
  • Page 32 When taking long exposures with astronomical telescopes, motorized tracking is required to compensate for the Earth’s rotation. Most telescope mounts do not track accurately enough for long-exposure imaging without some form of additional “guiding”. Manual guiding can be done by an observer watching a star (“guide star”) through a telescope (“guide scope”) mounted next to the...

  • Page 33: Computer To Mount Connection

    Keep in mind, however, that when the StarShoot Pro is used in this way, you will need another telescope and camera on the mount to actually take images with; the StarShoot Pro takes the place of the observer viewing through the guide scope, but cannot autoguide and image at the same time.
  • Page 34 10. Click OK in the ASCOM Telescope Chooser window. 11. In the Settings window, click the Close button. Some telescope mounts, such as the Orion Atlas EQ-G and Sirius EQ-G, uti- lize an “ST-4 compatible” autoguider jack. For easiest autoguiding with these mounts, we recommend purchasing the optional USB Guide Port interface (GPUSB).

  • Page 35: Autoguider Calibration

    7. Click Apply. You can leave this dialog box open, or Close it if you wish. 8. Make sure that the telescope mount is set to move at 1X sidereal or slower. For some mounts, you must set the guide rate manually. The maximum usable rate is 1X sidereal.
  • Page 36 If it corrects too slowly, increase the aggressiveness. Changes to the aggressiveness settings take effect immediately. You are now ready to take a long-exposure image through the main telescope and imaging camera. The StarShoot Pro will continuously send small correc- tion factors to the mount’s motor drive to insure steady and accurate tracking...

  • Page 37: Multiple Camera Control For Autoguiding

    Be sure to always balance the telescope such that it “lifting the weight” rather than “allowing it to fall”; i.e. heavier on the East side.

  • Page 38: View Menu

    View Menu Zoom – Increases or decreases level of image magnification on computer screen. When you zoom in too much, you will start to see the squares of indi- vidual pixels. When zoomed in, you can use Quick Pan; simply hold down the Ctrl key, then left-click and drag the mouse on the image.

  • Page 39: Help Menu

    (zero degrees declina- tion). Point the telescope at this star, and center it in an illuminated reticle eyepiece (available from Orion). If you don’t have an illuminated reticle eyepiece, use your highest- magnification eyepiece.

  • Page 40: Choosing A Site For Astro-Imaging

    5. If the star drifts north, the telescope mount is pointing too far west. If the star drifts south, the telescope mount is pointing too far east. Determine which way the star drifted and make the appropriate correction to the azi- muth position of the mount.

  • Page 41: Filters

    Filters Any standard Orion 2" filter will thread into the 2" nosepiece of the StarShoot Pro. Light pollution filters, or special light pollution filters designed for imaging (such as the Orion SkyGlow Imaging Filter) improves image contrast from urban areas with severe light pollution.

  • Page 42: Specifications

    7. Specifications CCD Sensor: Sensor format: Pixel array: Pixel size: Exposure range: A/D conversion: Binning Thermoelectric cooling: Operating Power Range: Camera current draw: USB connection: IR-cut filter: Optical window: Weight: Autoguider capability: Mounting: This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interfer- ence that may cause undesired operation.

  • Page 43: Appendix A. Troubleshooting

    USB 2.0 with a PCMCIA card Use the supplied USB cable first. Extension USB cables (available from Orion) should work with the camera. But adding length and another connection point between the computer and camera can potentially cause problems. If you are using an extension cable, limit the cable length to 10’.
  • Page 44 Figure 25. Readout artifacts similar to the ones shown here can occur if the camera readout speed is set too fast for your computer. Figure 26. Select the fastest possible readout speed (between 1 and 8) that downloads an image without any artifacts. the “Found new Hardware Wizard”...
  • Page 45 Maxim DL Essentials, and the Camera Control Window should appear indi- cating re-established connection between camera and computer. If you are unable to resolve your problem with the information provided here, please contact Orion’s Customer Service at 800-676-1343 or email support@ telescope.com.
  • Page 54 Notes ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________...
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  • Page 56 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars will repair or replace, at Orion’s option, any warranted instrument that proves to be defec- tive, provided it is returned postage paid to: Orion Warranty Repair, 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076. If the product is not registered, proof of purchase (such as a copy of the original invoice) is required.

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Starshoot pro 52084

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