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Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C User Manual

Superhad 6megapixel usb one-shot colour ccd camera
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Handbook for the SXV-M25C
Issue 1 June 2004
Starlight Xpress Ltd
SXV-M25C SuperHAD 6Megapixel USB
One-Shot Colour CCD camera

User manual

Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD camera. We hope that you will be
very satisfied with the results.
The SXV-M25C is an advanced, very high-resolution cooled CCD camera, especially
designed for 'One-Shot' colour astronomical imaging. The features include a built-in,
fully programmable, USB 2 super-fast computer interface (USB 1.1 compatible), an
optional add-on autoguider output and integrated dual serial ports for filter wheel and
telescope control. The SXV-M25C uses a Sony ICX413AQ a very large 'SuperHAD'
interline CCD, with 3040 x 2016 x 7.8uM pixels in a 23.4 x 15.6mm active area.
SuperHAD devices have excellent quantum efficiency in the visible spectrum, with a
broad spectral response peaking at around 60% in the green, and an extremely low
dark current, well below that of any comparable CCD currently available. The CCD
incorporates a 'Bayer Matrix' of Red, Green and Blue filters, deposited directly onto
the pixels and a downloaded image may be quickly converted into a full-colour
picture by application of the software provided.
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Summary of Contents for Starlight Xpress SXV-M25C

  • Page 1: User Manual

    SXV-M25C SuperHAD 6Megapixel USB One-Shot Colour CCD camera User manual Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD camera. We hope that you will be very satisfied with the results. The SXV-M25C is an advanced, very high-resolution cooled CCD camera, especially designed for ‘One-Shot’...

  • Page 2: 'Quick Starting' Your Sxv-M25C System

    6) An RJ11 cable for connection of the guide output to the mount. 7) A USB2 camera cable. 8) An adaptor for 2” drawtubes and M42 Pentax thread lenses. 9) A disk with the SXV-M25C control software. 10) This manual. Optional extra items include: 1) A serial port splitter adaptor and cable for filter wheels etc.
  • Page 3 The next operation is to run the USB installer from the CD ROM provided. Insert the CD into the computer and run the ‘InstallSXV’ file which is found in the SXV-M25C directory. This will install the following files: 1) ‘SXV_BlockIO_M25C.inf’...
  • Page 4 ‘BlockIOClass’ and clicking on the ‘+’ sign will reveal it to be a ‘Starlight Xpress USB 2.0 SXV-M25C camera driver’ or similar. If this device is faulty, try clicking on it and selecting ‘properties’ and then ‘update driver’.
  • Page 5 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 The camera rear panel Connect up the power supply and switch it on. You can start the ‘SXV_M25C’ software by double clicking on the icon and you should see the main menu and image...
  • Page 6 There are two simple options, at least one of which is available to everyone: 1) Attach a standard ‘M42’ SLR camera lens to the SXV-M25C, using the 25mm spacer to achieve the correct focal distance.
  • Page 7 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 If you use a normal lens, then stop it down to the smallest aperture number possible (usually F22) as this will minimise focus problems and keep the light level reasonable for daytime testing. The pin hole needs no such adjustments and will work immediately, although somewhat fuzzily.
  • Page 8 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 You can now select an exposure time of 0.1 seconds, followed by pressing of the ‘Take Photo’ button. After the exposure and download have completed (about 16 seconds) an image of some kind will appear on the computer monitor. It will probably be poorly focused...
  • Page 9 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 Please note that ONLY 1x1 binned images will decode to colour – the other modes are for focusing and acquisition only. If you cannot record any kind of image, please check the following points: 1) Ensure that the power indicator lamp is on and that the cables are properly home in their sockets.
  • Page 10 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 This includes various options for correcting the colour synthesis for variations in the lighting conditions, filters etc. Briefly, these items perform the following functions: 1) Daylight Image? – If an unfiltered lens is used, the infra-red content of the light will tend to produce a Green –...
  • Page 11 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 Now press the ‘Create Image’ button. After a couple of seconds, your raw mono image will be replaced by a full colour version. If the colour is roughly correct, then all is well. However, the colour decoding is reliant on the filter pattern being properly registered with the processing software and this can vary.
  • Page 12 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 The colour balance controls seem complex, but are really quite easy to use. The most useful controls are the ‘Start’ and ‘Saturation Factor’ settings. Saturation factor will simply vary the colour intensity, without any alteration of the colour balance, but the ‘Start’...

  • Page 13: Astronomical Imaging With The Sxv-M25C

    M25C image. It is time to move on to astronomical imaging, which has its own unique set of problems! ********************************************************************* Astronomical Imaging with the SXV-M25C 1) Getting the image onto the CCD: The SXV-M25 has a very large CCD chip and this will not work well with many commonly available telescopes, such as Schmidt-Cassegrain and Newtonian reflectors.
  • Page 14 F = Pixel size * 205920 / Resolution (in arc seconds) In the case of the SXV-M25C and a 2 arc seconds per pixel resolution, we get F = 0.0074 * 205920 / 2 = 761mm This is a very rough guide and so the 500mm FSQ is well suited, as are most other short focus refractors.
  • Page 15 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 computer will now display a continuous series of 128 x 128 pixel images in the focus window and you should see your selected star appear somewhere close to the centre. A ‘peak value’ (the value of the brightest pixel) will also be shown in the adjacent text box and this can be used as an indication of the focus accuracy.
  • Page 16 CCD, so that these defects are largely removed when the dark frame is subtracted from the light frame. The SXV-M25C CCD is quite different from those used in other brands of camera and generates an extremely low level of dark noise.
  • Page 17 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 ‘Flat fields’ are often recommended for optimising the results from your CCD camera. The purpose of a flat field is to compensate for uneven illumination and sensitivity of the CCD. In the case of the very large chip of the SXV-M25, it is likely that you will need to use flats to eliminate optical vignetting and so it is a good idea to get used to taking and using them.
  • Page 18 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 To use your flat fields, they must first have a dark frame subtracted. Although this may appear to be unimportant with such brightly lit and short exposures, there is the ‘bias offset’ of the camera in each image and this can produce an error in the final correction.
  • Page 19 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 4) The image will now look quite impressive and I hope that you are pleased with your first efforts! Further small refinements are usually possible and you will become expert at judging the best way to achieve these as your experience increases.
  • Page 20 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 Other things to try include summing several images for a better signal to noise ratio. This MUST be done AFTER colour synthesis, as summing raw images is very likely to destroy the filter grid pattern and so prevent the creation of a proper colour image.
  • Page 21 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 at a rate proportional to the square root of the number of summations (summing 4 images will double the signal-to-noise), but different exposures must be used. Summing an image with itself will not change the S/N ratio! Another recent addition to the range of highly effective image enhancing software is a program called ‘Neat...
  • Page 22 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 Taking pictures of the planets: The SXV-M25 is not designed as a planetary camera, but it can be used quite successfully in the ‘sub-frame’ mode. Planetary imaging is in many ways quite different from deep sky imaging.
  • Page 23 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 ratio. This means that aggressive sharpening filters may be used without making the result look very noisy and so some of the effects of poor seeing can be neutralised. Try applying an ‘Unsharp Mask’ filter with a radius of 5 and a power of 5. This will greatly increase the visibility of any detail on the planet, but the optimum radius and power will have to be determined by experiment.
  • Page 24 If ‘active high’ inputs are needed, or a very low control voltage drop is essential, then you will need to add a Starlight Xpress ‘relay box’ between the guider output and the input to the mount. Please contact your local distributor if a relay box is required.
  • Page 25 Issue 1 June 2004 The autoguider installed on a 80mm refractor guide ‘scope in the author’s garden To use the autoguider, please proceed as follows: 1) Having started the SXV-M25C software, open the autoguider control panel by clicking on the autoguider menu button.
  • Page 26 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 The autoguider control panel with a guide star selected 2) Press the ‘Start’ button and a series of 1 second exposure guider images will begin to appear in the picture frame. If the images look too dim, use the ‘Stretch Image’...
  • Page 27 ********************************************************************* Using the built-in serial ports The SXV-M25C incorporates two fast serial ports for use with external accessories. The ports are available on 5 pins of the 18 way connector that is provided for the autoguider and may be accessed by plugging in a ‘serial port divider box’. The divider...
  • Page 28 696 x 520 pixel image with 4 times the effective sensitivity. Using 2x2 binning, you can considerably improve the sensitivity of the SXV-M25C without losing a great deal of resolving power, so you may like to use this mode to capture many faint deep-sky objects in monochrome. Other binning...
  • Page 29 5mA per output. This socket may be used for telescope control if the SXV-M25C is employed as an autoguider, but is primarily intended to be the control output for the optional add-on autoguider camera head, available for use with the SXV-M25C.
  • Page 30 Issue 1 June 2004 ********************************************************************* Camera maintenance: Very little maintenance is needed to keep the SXV-M25C in excellent operating order, however two problems, which are common to all CCD equipment, might show up on occasion. These are dust particles and condensation.
  • Page 31 7) Replace all the camera parts in reverse order and the job is done. Dealing with condensation: The SXV-M25C is designed to avoid condensation by minimising the volume of air trapped within the CCD cavity and by preventing moisture ingress. This normally works very well, but storage of the camera in a humid location can lead to the trapped air becoming moist by diffusion through the optical window mounting thread etc.

  • Page 32: Conditions Of Guarantee

    Camera size: 75mm diameter x 100mm long Dear Observer, Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD Imaging System. We are confident that you will gain much satisfaction from this equipment, but please read carefully the accompanying instruction manual to ensure that you achieve the best performance that is capable of providing.
  • Page 33 Handbook for the SXV-M25C Issue 1 June 2004 Web site: http://www.starlight-xpress.co.uk...