Related Manuals for Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-8300M
Summary of Contents for Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-8300M
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Page 1: Ccd Camera
Model ST-8300M/C CCD Camera Operating Manual Santa Barbara Instrument Group 147A Castilian Drive Santa Barbara, CA 93117 Phone (805) 571-7244 • Fax (805) 571-1147 Email sbig @ sbig . com • Web www . sbig . com... - Page 2 Very Important: Before you attach the ST-8300 to your computer for the first time you MUST install the software as described Section 2. Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation.
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Page 3: Table Of Contents
Table of Contents Introduction ..................... 1 Getting Started....................1 Overview and Connections................3 Installing the Software..................4 Installing the Software on 32-bit Windows Systems ........4 Installing the Software on 64-bit Windows Systems ........7 Migrating Old Drivers from 32-bit to newer 64-bit Systems...... 10 Using the Camera Inside ................ -
Page 4: Introduction
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 1. Introduction Congratulations and thank you for buying one of our ST-8300 cooled CCD cameras. The ST-8300 has the following features: • Uses Kodak’s microlensed, blue enhanced KAF-8300 CCD with 3326 x 2504 pixels, 5.4 micron square pixels. •... - Page 5 SBIG ST-8300 Manual Extremely Important! In the past SBIG has shipped products like the STV, ST-5C and ST-237/A that used a 12-Volt, Center- Negative power supply. Starting with the ST-402 series of cameras we switched to Center-Positive 12-Volt power supplies. How do you know the difference? All 12-Volt, Center-Positive power jacks and receptacles are locking with a threaded collar.
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Page 6: Overview And Connections
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 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-8300 as an autoguider, or when using Track &... -
Page 7: Installing The Software
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 2. Installing the Software Installing the Software o 32-bit Windows Systems This secti on describes how to install drivers on a 32-bit Windows sy stem. Note: If you are installing the camera drivers on a 64-bit Windows System, skip this section and follow the instructions in the next section. - Page 8 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 6. We’ve finished installing the drivers but now we need to bind them to the ST-8300. Quit the Driver Checker by clicking the in the upper-right hand corner. If you’re running Windows XP then continue with step 7 below. Users of older versions of Windows should now look for instructions particular to their version of Windows in the “Installing USB Drivers”...
- Page 9 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 11. After booting the camera Windows will bring up another copy of the Wizard. The ST-8300 actually uses two drivers. One to boot the camera and one to talk to it after it’s booted. We now need to walk Windows through installing the second driver.
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Page 10: Installing The Software On 64-Bit Windows Systems
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Installing the Software on 64-bit Windows Systems This section tells you how to do a fresh install of 64-bit drivers for SBIG Cameras on your 64-bit Versions of Windows XP or Windows Vista. 1. Make sure no SBIG cameras are attached to your system. 2. - Page 11 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 4. Run the Driver Checker application and it will ask you about any ST Series Cameras (ST-7/8/9/10/2K) you may plan on using. Prior to 2006 the ST Series cameras had only an internal Tracking CCD. We call this the Classic Model. In 2006 we added the Remote Guide Head capability to the ST Series and we call it the Pro Model.
- Page 12 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 8. Now it's time to try out the new drivers. With your camera disconnected from the PC, power it up and then plug it into the PC with the USB Cable. In the lower-right hand corner of the screen you see something like: Followed by:...
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Page 13: Migrating Old Drivers From 32-Bit To Newer 64-Bit Systems
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 9. 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. There are 4 possibilities and you must choose the correct set of drivers. - Page 14 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 3. Manually delete the old drivers files from the Device Manager. In the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. b. At the command prompt, type the following command , and then press ENTER: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 Type the following command a command prompt, and...
- Page 15 SBIG ST-8300 Manual Click Finish and then you’ll have to go through steps b through d one more time for this camera. Repeats steps a through f for each SBIG camera. When you’re all done your camera should show up in the Device Manager in the SBIG USB Devices section as shown below: Updating CCDOps and Drivers We are constantly adding new features and fixing software bugs in our...
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Page 16: Using The Camera Inside
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 3. Using the Camera Inside When you first receive the ST-8300 it’s wise to get acquainted with its operation inside the house where it’s warm and not to try to fight the telescope operation in the dark. We’ve included a brief tutorial below to get you acquainted with the ST-8300 and the CCDOps software. - Page 17 SBIG ST-8300 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 18 SBIG ST-8300 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. The second effect you’ll notice is a brightening on the left of the image, as if something bright was just outside the field of view.
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Page 19: Brightness And Contrast
SBIG ST-8300 Manual pixels are definitely obscuring it. Now use the Dark Subtract command in the Utility menu. This brings up the Open File dialog where CCDOps wants you to select which image to subtract. Double-click on Image 2, the 10-second dark frame. -
Page 20: Establishing A Link
SBIG ST-8300 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. Set the Back to 8,000 and the Range to 20,000 by typing in the fields (without the comma) and then hit the Apply button to get us back to where we started. -
Page 21: Camera Info
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Use the Graphics/Comm Setup command in the Misc menu to make sure USB is selected for the Interface. Click OK to set/confirm that and then use the Establish COM Link command in the Camera menu. CCDOps will try to connect to your camera, which can take several seconds to complete. -
Page 22: Camera Setup
SBIG ST-8300 Manual easy for us to update the ST-8300 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. Serial Number – If you ever need to know this, here it is. It’s on the label on the back of the camera as well. -
Page 23: Grab Command
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Setpoint – When the Temperature Regulation is on, set this to the absolute temperature in degrees C to which the CCD should be cooled. We know that cooling reduces dark current but there is a limit as to how much the CCD can be cooled by the TE cooler. -
Page 24: Focus Command
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Here we’re asking for a 1.0-second dark frame of the full CCD. Click the OK button and in a few seconds you’ll see an image that looks a lot like the Image 1 from the tutorial. Hot pixels, readout glow and salt-and-pepper noise, they’re all there. - Page 25 SBIG ST-8300 Manual automatically. Use the Focus command in the Camera menu and set it up in the Focus Setup dialog as shown below: Click OK and the camera will go into Focus mode. You’ll see image after image appear in a single window with a new image about every second. The images will vary slightly from image to image, mostly in the random background noise but in general they’ll all look a lot like Image 1.
- Page 26 SBIG ST-8300 Manual of the noise. It’s slightly slower when using dark frames so only use this when you need to. Update Mode – Sometimes you want to tweak the focus, look at an image, tweak it again, etc. Setting this to Manual causes the Focus mode to pause between images until the Space Bar is hit or you click the Pause/Resume button.
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Page 27: At The Telescope
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 4. At the Telescope Connect the camera to the computer and start CCDOps. Establish a link to the camera and run the Camera Setup command. Enable the cooling to ~30 degrees below ambient and then watch the Link Status field to see the temperature come down. -
Page 28: Finding And Centering The Object
SBIG ST-8300 Manual the frame rate or screen update rate can be increased significantly by using Planet mode. In Planet mode the Focus command takes a full image and then lets you position a variable sized rectangle around the star. On subsequent images the Planet mode only digitizes, downloads, and displays the small area you selected. -
Page 29: Taking An Image
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Note: With a 10 second exposure, objects like M51 or the ring-nebula are easily detected with modest amateur telescopes. The cores of most galactic NGC objects can also be seen. Taking an Image Take an image of the object by selecting the Grab command and setting the exposure time. -
Page 30: Accessories For Your Ccd Camera
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 5. Accessories for your CCD Camera This section describes several of the common Accessories designed to work with the ST-8300. Color Filter Wheel 1. The CFW-8300 enables collection of LRGB color images, narrowband and photometric images with the ST-8300. The CFW- 8300 is a 5-position filter wheel that holds 36mm diameter filters for unvignetted images at fast focal ratios. - Page 31 SBIG ST-8300 Manual Options: A. T-thread to c-mount adapter B. C-mount lens (user supplied) C. CLA-5 35mm camera lens adapter D. Nikon 35mm camera lens (user supplied) E. 2" T-thread nosepiece (supplied with the camera) F. T-thread visual back for SCT G.
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Page 32: Glossary
SBIG ST-8300 Manual 6. 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 33 SBIG ST-8300 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 34 SBIG ST-8300 Manual Readout Noise - Readout noise is associated with errors generated by the actual interrogation and readout of each of the CCD pixels at the end of an exposure. This is the result of fixed pattern noise in the CCD, residual charge in the readout capacitors and to a small extent the noise from the A/D converter and preamplifier.
- Page 35 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 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 36: Appendix A - Connector And Cables
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Appendix A – Connector and Cables Power Jack The Power Jack is used to supply 10.0 – 14.5 Volts DC at 1 amp to the camera. The jack is locking and center-positive. The mating plug is the locking model Switchcraft S760K with 0.218 inch outer diameter and 0.080 inch inner diameter (5.5/2.0 mm). -
Page 37: Appendix B - Maintenance
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Appendix B – Maintenance This Appendix describes the periodic maintenance items you need to perform on your camera to keep it in optimal condition. Cleaning the Window and Filters 1) Get a can of compressed air from a photo store, as well as a small camera hair brush 2) Thoroughly clean and dry the brush using isopropyl alcohol 3) Remove the front cover of the camera. - Page 38 SBIG ST-8300 Manual 3. Remove the shutter or filter wheel by unscrewing the small Philips head screw and washer that holds it in place. Make sure you know which side goes up. With filter wheels it the side with the filters but with shutters you’ll have to keep track of it as they won’t work right if flipped.
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Page 39: Appendix C - Camera Specifications
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Appendix C – Camera Specifications The table below lists the specifications for the ST-8300 camera. Specifications are typical and can vary from camera to camera and are subject to change without notice. Kodak KAF-8300 Pixel Array 3326 x 2504 pixels Total Pixels 8.3 Megapixels 5.4 x 5.4 microns... -
Page 40: Appendix D - St-8300Cm Color Camera Supplement
SBIG ST-8300 Manual Appendix D – ST-8300CM Color Camera Supplement The raw single-shot color image: The first thing you notice about the raw images from your single-shot color camera is that they are not in color! This is normal - the color data is being displayed as greyscale values in a raw single-shot color image You might also notice a grid or “screen door”... - Page 41 SBIG ST-8300 Manual camera control software to acquire your single-shot color images, make sure to save them in either SBIG or 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 42 SBIG ST-8300 Manual Easy Processing of Single-shot Color Images with CCDOPS Once you have captured the image, from the Utility drop-down menu in CCDOPS select Single Shot Color --> Color Process and you are ready to go. Processing of Single-Shot Color Camera images is easy. Start by clicking the Defaults button and selecting RGB or DDP for the Method (DDP works great on galaxies with bright cores).
- Page 43 SBIG ST-8300 Manual If you don't like the color balance of the result, simply modify the color balance pointers and click the "process" button again. For more in-depth color image processing, you can extract the RGB color channels and perform more traditional tri-color image processing techniques (see Processing Separate RGB Images, below).
- Page 44 SBIG ST-8300 Manual Brightness and Contrast Use the Brightness and Contrast sliders to adjust the image and then hit the Process button to see the results. 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.
- Page 45 SBIG ST-8300 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, Green, Blue) and a synthesized Luminance (greyscale) channel: Once extracted, the R,G and B frames from a Single Shot Color Camera are treated the same as RGB frames shot with a monochrome camera and color...
- Page 46 SBIG ST-8300 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 47 SBIG ST-8300 Manual then you would reduce the Red Horizontal item by 1. After each adjustment hit the “Do It” button to see the results. [b] Color Balance – Raise or lower the Factors column to adjust the Color Balance. For example, to make the image redder, raise the Red factor.
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