Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-8300M Operating Manual Download Page 1

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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

Summary of Contents for ST-8300M

Page 1: ...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: ...to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception w...

Page 3: ...lishing a Link 17 Camera Info 18 Camera Setup 19 Grab Command 20 Focus Command 21 4 At the Telescope 24 Finding and Centering the Object 25 Taking an Image 26 Further Adventures 26 5 Accessories for y...

Page 4: ...nter positive power jack Telescope interface with four optically isolated normally open signals on the industry standard RJ 11 jack T Thread based mechanical interface that supports a variety of nosep...

Page 5: ...6 pin autoguider cables and reversed means that unlike ordinary phone cables this one flips the order of the wires You can tell a tracking cable from an ordinary cable by noting that with tracking cab...

Page 6: ...supply that comes with the camera will operate from 100 240VAC and provides 3 5A at 12VDC Note that while an ST 402 power supply will fit it does not provide the current required by the ST 8300 to op...

Page 7: ...ler program will automatically start If it doesn t explore the CD ROM drive and double click on the autorun exe icon Then click on the Setup a New Camera button Install CCDOps Click on the Install CCD...

Page 8: ...emember that Now plug the camera into the USB port on the computer with the supplied USB cable Remember which port you re using because you ll want to use the same port again next time or you ll have...

Page 9: ...ast time copying the SBIG USB Camera driver then show you the Completing the Found New Hardware Wizard page Click the Finish button and pat your self on the back You re done If you ever doubt that the...

Page 10: ...patible SBIG Driver Checker application on your system 3 On Vista based systems find the icon for the SBIG Driver Checker by opening the Start menu and typing SBIGDriver in the search box The icon sho...

Page 11: ...eds to know whether your ST Series camera is a Classic Model or a Pro model 5 After answering the Classic Pro question above you ll see the following dialog The list of drivers shown may be different...

Page 12: ...ow 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 somet...

Page 13: ...te 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 Migr...

Page 14: ...402 Loader g Quit the Device Manager 4 Install the new DriverChecker64 software a Use the installer that came with your camera or download it from our web site www sbig com 5 Run the DriverChecker64...

Page 15: ...s section as shown below Updating CCDOps and Drivers We are constantly adding new features and fixing software bugs in our software which is available for free download from our web site You should pe...

Page 16: ...an embedded Help button that will take you to the Help Topic for that specific command Just remember help is always just a click away Opening and Inspecting Dark Frames We ve included some sample ima...

Page 17: ...se images too What causes hot pixels It s an attribute of CCD sensors called dark current A pixel in an ideal CCD in the absence of light would maintain a steady value When exposed to light the pixel...

Page 18: ...fect you ll notice is the salt and pepper look of the background What you re seeing here is the ultimate noise floor of the CCD whereby adjacent pixels have slightly different values due to noise in t...

Page 19: ...our object appears and as promised the hot pixels and the readout glow are gone replaced by the object and the salt and pepper noise What did we do 16 Click the small up and down buttons adjacent to t...

Page 20: ...nds to increase the noise in faint areas The last thing to try in the Contrast dialog is the Mag popup It s set to 1 1 but selecting 2 1 or 4 1 zooms in on the image enlarging the image display Select...

Page 21: ...T 8300 However if you click on Camera Info below the ST 8300 will be correctly identified This box also indicates that the Temperature of the CCD is 18 48 C and that the TE cooling is disabled 0 The c...

Page 22: ...ps of pixels are combined to form a single larger pixel This reduces the resolution but increases the sensitivity as larger pixels capture more light The Medium and Low resolution modes utilize 2x2 an...

Page 23: ...start with the Auto resolution mode In Auto mode the camera uses the high resolution mode everywhere except in the Full Frame Focus mode discussed below where it uses the low resolution mode to speed...

Page 24: ...ns here is the camera takes a dark frame first and then takes a light frame subtracting the dark frame from it The result should be uniform noise without hot pixels and without readout glow Had we had...

Page 25: ...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 FOV of the CCD but are slower t...

Page 26: ...r to get the best focus by maximizing the Peak on a star Pause Resume Click this button at any time to pause or resume the focus mode This can be handy for going back and forth between the telescope a...

Page 27: ...stant street lamp This preliminary step will save you much time in initially finding focus The distance behind the eyepiece tube for the ST 8300 is approximately 0 7 inches backfocus To achieve fine f...

Page 28: ...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 to...

Page 29: ...ve nights At the start it s probably easiest to just take the dark frames when you are taking the image Later as you get a feel for the types of exposures and Setpoint temperatures you use you may wis...

Page 30: ...apter that allows you to run the ST 8300 in the field off a car battery Contact us for pricing and availability and make sure you ask for the Center Positive version Camera Lens Adapters SBIG sells a...

Page 31: ...r 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 CFW 8300 5 posit...

Page 32: ...lectrons in proportion to the amount of light entering the pixel After the exposure is complete the electron charge buildup in each pixel is measured When a pixel is displayed at the computer screen i...

Page 33: ...n used in CCD imaging Full Well Capacity Full Well Capacity refers to the maximum number of electrons a CCD pixel can hold This number is usually directly proportional to the area of the pixel Histogr...

Page 34: ...ts full well capacity The A D is saturated when the input voltage exceeds the maximum Sky Background The sky background illumination or brightness is the number of counts in the image in areas free of...

Page 35: ...st logs all the corrections made by CCDOPS for each of the images Track lists are required when flat fielding Track and Accumulate images Tri Color Tri Color refers to color images created using three...

Page 36: ...They can sink up to 25ma and can hold off up to 25V If what you are plugging into is voltage based you ll need an external pull up resistor The Common signal is connected to the common on the four ph...

Page 37: ...you have a dust particle that will not blow off poke it loose with the brush They cling to the surface due to static so you may end up just pushing them out of the way The static forces are quite str...

Page 38: ...Cover Window Plate by loosening the four SHCS that hold it in place 5 Pull out the old desiccant pack and replace it with the fresh one You may have to wedge it in there or fold the bag slightly to ge...

Page 39: ...ll Capacity 25 500 electrons Dark Current 0 5e at 0 C Shutter Electromechanical Exposure 0 1 to 3600 seconds 10ms resolution A D Converter 16 bit with Correlated Double Sampling Read Noise 10e RMS Bin...

Page 40: ...8300CM 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...

Page 41: ...lor positions on the mask If the image has been cropped or rotated outside of CCDOPS the software will no longer be able to associate the pixels with the correct red green or blue values During proces...

Page 42: ...image will finally appear Experiment using the sliders to adjust the color balance brightness and contrast Each time you click on Process the image will update and display your changes The single sho...

Page 43: ...s Note that once the image is saved as a TIFF you won t be able to process it any further with CCDOPS You will still be able to open and view the image however Color Balance Any color image even those...

Page 44: ...he results you like Of course if you want more control over the image you may wish to process the R G and B frames separately and combine them just as you would if the three frames were taken separate...

Page 45: ...the final image Each time you click on Do It the image will update and display your changes Select File Save As to save the final color image as a TIFF file Processing separate RGB images to create a...

Page 46: ...the hard work is done you can close the Red Green and Blue images and then invoke the RGB Combine command in the Utility menu You ll be shown the dialog at right If the Advanced Setting section is not...

Page 47: ...rreversible change to your image file s that is not to your liking You can always extract the raw RGB channels again from the original 44 Special CCDOPS Functions for Single Shot Color Cameras Filter...

Page 48: ...SBIG ST 8300 Manual 45...

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