Page 1: ...Manual CCD Camera Models ST 7E ST 8E ST 9E ST 10E and ST 1001E Santa Barbara Instrument Group 147A Castilian Drive Santa Barbara CA 93117 Phone 805 571 7244 Fax 805 571 1147 Web www sbig com Email sbi...
Page 2: ...pment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or m...
Page 3: ...cope with a CCD Camera 15 3 1 Step by Step with a CCD Camera 15 3 2 Attaching the Camera to the Telescope 15 3 3 Establishing a Communications Link 16 3 4 Focusing the CCD Camera 16 3 5 Finding and Ce...
Page 4: ...1 Cooling Booster 39 6 2 Tri color Imaging 40 6 3 Camera Lens Adapters and Eyepiece Projection 40 6 4 Focal Reducers 40 6 5 AO 7 and Lucy Richardson Software 41 6 6 SGS Self Guided Spectrograph 41 6 7...
Page 5: ...l guider setup hassles all from the computer keyboard This capability coupled with the phenomenal sensitivity of the CCD will allow the user to acquire observatory class images of deep sky images with...
Page 6: ...ode Use the Photo Mode command in the Display menu Click the mouse to return to the menus Load up the other sample images and display them using the photo display mode You have to close any existing i...
Page 7: ...sections of the manual Insert the CCD Camera into the telescope and focus on a star refer to Sections 3 2 and 3 3 Find some relatively bright object like M51 the Ring Nebula M57 or the Dumbbell Nebula...
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Page 9: ...l be displayed as a spreadsheet with groups of numbers in each cell representing the number of electrons produced at each pixel These numbers are displayed by your computer as shades of gray for each...
Page 10: ...revent streaking of the image Without a shutter the image would be streaked due to the fact that the pixels continue to collect light as they are being shifted out towards the readout register CCDs wi...
Page 11: ...nsor organized in a rectangular array of regularly spaced rows and columns The ST 7E ST 8E ST 9E and ST 10E use two CCDs one for imaging Kodak KAF series and one for tracking TI TC211 like the ST 4 4X...
Page 12: ...charge in the array and is used to clear the array or read it out The Analog to Digital Converter A D digitizes the data in the CCD for storage in the Host Computer The microcontroller is used to reg...
Page 13: ...at from sky background If your sky conditions are causing photoelectrons to be generated at the rate of 100 e pixel sec for example increasing the cooling beyond the point where the dark current is ro...
Page 14: ...urements Appendix D describes how to take a good flat field It s not that easy but we have found a technique that works well for us 2 4 5 Pixels vs Film Grains Resolution of detail is determined to a...
Page 15: ...ld of view of the camera For comparison the diagonal measurement of a frame of 35mm film is approximately 43mm whereas the diagonal dimension of the ST 7E chip is approximately 8 mm The relative CCD s...
Page 16: ...es a color corresponding to a number which is produced by the electronics and photo sensitive nature of the CCD camera However electronic images differ from photographic images in several important as...
Page 17: ...ke its sensitive layers Of course there are color video cameras and a number of novel techniques have been developed to make the CCD chip see color The most common way implemented on commercial camera...
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Page 19: ...er or attaching it via t threads A fifteen foot cable runs from the head to the host computer s parallel port The camera is powered by a desktop power supply Operation from a car battery is possible u...
Page 20: ...with the camera Note It is not necessary to have a camera connected to your computer to run the software and display images already saved onto disk It is only necessary to have a camera connected whe...
Page 21: ...focus 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...
Page 22: ...th 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 3 6 Taking an Image Take a CCD im...
Page 23: ...te filters stellar temperature can be measured In the crosshair mode you move a small cross shaped crosshair around in the image using the keyboard or the mouse As you position the crosshair the softw...
Page 24: ...en allows making telescope corrections between images to keep the object positioned in the field of view The resulting exposure is almost as good as a single long exposure depending on the exposure us...
Page 25: ...splay A calibration star should be chosen that is relatively bright and isolated The calibration software can get confused if another star of comparable brightness moves onto the tracking CCD during a...
Page 26: ...ack with the three color band filters Second since you have narrowed the CCD s wavelength response with the interference filters longer exposures are required to achieve a similar signal to noise comp...
Page 27: ...C power inverter 4 3 Connecting to the Computer The ST 7E ST 8E ST 9E ST 10E and ST 1001E CCD Cameras are supplied with a 15 foot cable to connect the system to the host computer The connection is bet...
Page 28: ...phone jack type CCD connector SBIG includes its TIC 78 Tracking Interface Cable Adapter for this express purpose although it is easy to modify a standard 6 pin telephone cable for interface to the Tel...
Page 29: ...s involve hand controller buttons that use both a push to make contact in conjunction with a push to break contact The modification required for these switches involves cutting traces or wires in the...
Page 30: ...and controller if you can trace out the wiring of your joystick to its connector potentiometer A B C A Unmodified Joystick R wiper B Joystick Eliminator nc c no relay B C A nc c no relay R 2 R 2 Figur...
Page 31: ...ity to the associated light frame Closed loop systems regulate the CCD s temperature to an accuracy of 0 1 C making dark frames useful over longer periods Electromechanical Vane Having the vane in the...
Page 32: ...e images take longer to readout etc With typical PC and Macintosh computer graphics resolutions the CCDs used in the SBIG cameras offer a good trade off between cost and resolution matching the comput...
Page 33: ...the maximum level except for stars in the field of view Low level nebulosity will almost always be well below saturation While integrating longer would cause more build up of charge the signal to nois...
Page 34: ...30 inches Jupiter 40 arcseconds 13000mm 510 inches 34000mm 1350 inches M51 Whirlpool Galaxy 8 x 5 arcminutes 1040mm 41 inches 3700mm 145 inches M27 Dumbell Nebula 8 5 x 5 5 arcminutes M57 Ring Nebula...
Page 35: ...http www sbig com or by contacting SBIG directly at the phone number or e mail address on the cover of this manual AO 7 Compatibility Because the AO 7 Adaptive Optics accessory uses the tracking CCD...
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Page 37: ...minute exposure will clearly show nearly any object you wish to image particularly if 2x2 or 3x3 binning is selected Using the Grab command exposures of five minutes will generally give you a clear i...
Page 38: ...for later use This is a good project for a rainy night We recommend you build a file of 5 10 20 40 and 60 minute dark frames at zero degrees Centigrade for a start Otherwise you will find yourself wa...
Page 39: ...ollowing procedure should be followed when flat field correction of Track and Accumulate images is desired 1 Take a normal flat field image using the Grab command You can use the dusk sky or a neutral...
Page 40: ...After the software has finished correcting the image you can view the results and save the flat field corrected image with the Save command This image will be referred to as the CORRECTED IMAGE file...
Page 41: ...nded position At the start you should pick a calibration star with roughly the same declination as the intended object since the telescope s correction speeds vary with declination As you get used to...
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Page 43: ...ooster with only air cooling in the winter though Without flowing water the cooling improvement is about 6 degrees C With it the cooling improvement is about 15 degrees C If you plan to use it without...
Page 44: ...taches to the front of the CCD head and allows you to take images in red green and blue light of the same object When these images are aligned and processed a full color image results Note Due to the...
Page 45: ...CD user We mention a few to give you an idea of the ever increasing interest in this new technology Scanning through the pages of Sky Telescope CCD Astronomy or Astronomy magazine reveals many third p...
Page 46: ...omputer screen These programs however do not produce very detailed prints and are useful only to a very limited degree Recently photo quality color desktop printers have become commonplace Many of the...
Page 47: ...u can rapidly return to the best point after going through focus Elongated Guided Images When using Track and Accumulate or Self Guiding if you notice guiding errors resulting in elongated star images...
Page 48: ...mode in the Camera Setup Command you can move the telescope and Grab an image fairly quickly to detect movement of the telescope pointed at a moderately bright star Try each of the four directions an...
Page 49: ...The user will need to routinely create image files called Dark Frames A Dark Frame is an image taken completely in the dark The shutter covers the CCD Dark Frames are subtracted from normal exposures...
Page 50: ...number of pixels having a given intensity for each of the possible pixel locations of the image file Remember that in the end the image file is nothing more than a list of pixel values one for each CC...
Page 51: ...o resolution modes Response Factor Response Factor is a multiplier used by CCDOPS to calibrate CCDOPS to a given telescope for photometric calculations The Response Factor multiplied by 6700 is the nu...
Page 52: ...Accumulate The Track and Accumulate function is a SBIG patented feature of CCDOPS that allows the user to automatically co register and co add including dark frame subtraction a series of images of an...
Page 53: ...ow Open Drain 7 Minus Y Active LowOpen Drain 8 12 Volts Out 100mA max 9 5 Volts Out 300 mA max Shell Chassis Ground Table A1 Telescope Connector Pin Number Function 6 Shell Earth Ground 5 DC Ground 4...
Page 54: ...Telescope port with our TIC 78 Tracking Interface Cable or you can make your own cable Figure A1 below shows the pinouts on these telescopes Special Common Left Down Up Right White Black Red Green Ye...
Page 55: ...desiccant used in the ST 7E 8E 9E 10E 1001E The desiccant absorbs moisture in the CCD chamber lowering the dew point below the operating temperature of the cooled CCD thus preventing the formation of...
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Page 57: ...e telescope Do not rotate the head between image and flat field since the vignetting is usually slightly off center Do not be tempted to build a little LED into the telescope or camera for doing flat...
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Page 59: ...17 19 Grab 18 33 Track 37 Track and Accumulate 20 33 37 Tracking Parameters 37 Commands Establish COM Link 16 PC Setup 16 communications link 16 connector Telescope 49 connector CPU RELAYS 23 37 cooli...
Page 60: ...er 24 moon 16 30 33 negative image 18 nosepiece 15 observatory 23 optical head 15 23 optical head orientation 16 O ring 8 path def 46 path filter def 46 PC 8 PC Setup Command 16 PEC drive correctors 2...
Page 61: ...42 telescope 10 15 18 20 Telescope connector 49 telescope hand controller 18 20 23 24 temperature regulation 9 18 27 thermistor 9 TIC 49 TIC 78 24 TIFF format def 48 Track and Accumulate def 48 Track...
