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Handbook for the SXVR-H694C

Issue 1 March 2012

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The SXVR-H694C colour CCD camera

Thank you

for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD camera. We hope that you will be

very satisfied with the results.

The SXVR-H694C is an advanced, high-resolution one-shot colour, cooled CCD
camera, especially designed for astronomical imaging. It uses a third generation
version of the very popular Sony ‘EXview’ CCDs that offer very high QE and
extremely low thermal noise. Other features include a built-in, fully programmable,
USB 2 super-fast computer interface, an autoguider control port and output and
optional integrated dual serial ports for filter wheel and telescope control. It also
includes a CCD temperature monitoring circuit that provides regulated set-point
cooling of the chip, adjustable chip alignment and a very compact overall size.

The SXVR-H694C uses a Sony ICX694ALG ‘EXview’ progressive scan CCD, with
2750 x 2200 x 4.54uM pixels in a 12.48 x 9.98mm active area. This EXview device

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Summary of Contents for SXVR-H694C

Page 1: ...w CCDs that offer very high QE and extremely low thermal noise Other features include a built in fully programmable USB 2 super fast computer interface an autoguider control port and output and optional integrated dual serial ports for filter wheel and telescope control It also includes a CCD temperature monitoring circuit that provides regulated set point cooling of the chip adjustable chip align...

Page 2: ... system In the shipping container you will find the following items 1 The SXVR H694C camera head 2 A universal AC power supply module 3 A USB camera cable 4 An adaptor for 1 25 drawtubes with a 1 25 filter thread 5 An adaptor for 2 drawtubes and M42 Pentax thread lenses 6 A guider output to guider port lead 7 A disk with the SXVR H694C control software and this manual Optional extra items include ...

Page 3: ...t for Windows Explorer to open with the list of folders on the ROM Now run the SETUP EXE file that it contains this will initiate the self install software which will guide you through the process of installing the SX camera software onto your computer Now connect the USB cable to the socket on the camera rear panel Windows will report Found new hardware and will ask for the location of the driver...

Page 4: ...river Following the on screen instructions will allow you to re select the correct inf file from the CD SXVIO_H694_194 inf and driver files SXVIO sys and generic sys which should fix the problem Now connect up the power supply and switch it on The supply is a very efficient switch mode unit which can operate from either 110v or 220v AC via an appropriate mains power cable supplied You can now star...

Page 5: ...and you should use a set point of no lower than 5C for stable cooling You can determine the optimum settings for your camera and ambient conditions when you have some experience of using the system but do not try to operate at extreme cooling when the air temperature is high Recording your first image We now have the camera and computer set up to take pictures but an optical system is needed to pr...

Page 6: ... of the adaptor and pricking its centre with a small pin 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 7: ...e following points 1 Ensure that the power indicator lamp is on and that the cables are properly home in their sockets 2 If the screen is completely white the camera may be greatly overexposed Try a shorter exposure time or stop down your lens See if covering the lens causes the image to darken 3 If the USB did not initialise properly the camera start up screen will tell you that the connection is...

Page 8: ...er and averages out the colour information All images that you intend to colour convert must be taken in binned 1x1 mode Also please note that you cannot sum frames together before colour conversion This must be done after the images have been colour converted Here is a small enlarged section of a daylight image which may be similar to your test image taken with a 50mm camera lens The visible grid...

Page 9: ...oise 4 Apply Anti Alias Runs a special filter over the colour data to remove coloured artefacts around sharp edges This is especially useful for cleaning up erratically coloured star images 5 IR Filter Used Sets the colour balance to allow for the loss of infra red content when using an IR blocking filter 6 Stretching A selection of contrast boosting options which are preset for various subjects 7...

Page 10: ...Set Colour Balance dialog box Under Colour in the main menu 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 settings for each colour will alter the colour rendering of the dimmer parts of t...

Page 11: ...ll want to experiment with the effects of image processing In the case of daylight images the processing options are many but there are few that will improve the picture in a useful way The most useful of these are the Normal Contrast Stretch and the High Pass Low Power filter The high pass filter gives a moderate improvement in the image sharpness and this can be very effective on daylight images...

Page 12: ...nough for the focus to be trimmed to its optimum setting Several astronomical stores sell adjustable par focal eyepieces but you can also make your own with a minimum of materials and an unwanted Kellner or Plossl ocular Just measure a distance of 22mm from the field stop of the eyepiece equivalent to the CCD to adaptor flange distance of the camera and make an extension tube to set the field stop...

Page 13: ... us to assume a much better telescope resolution and 0 25 arc seconds per pixel is a good value to use The calculation now gives the following result F 0 00545 205920 0 25 4489mm This is approximately F22 when used with a 200mm SCT and so we will need a 2 or 3x Barlow lens Barlow lenses are less critical than focal reducers and most types can be used with good results However if you are buying one...

Page 14: ...nal aids such as Hartmann or Bahnitov masks an objective cover with several spaced holes or diffraction bars narrow parallel rods across the telescope aperture These make the point of precise focus easier to determine by creating double images or bright diffraction spikes around stars which merge at the setting of exact focus The 12 16 bit slider control allows you to adjust the contrast of the fo...

Page 15: ...frame The SXVR H694C CCD is quite different from those used in other brands of camera and generates an extremely low level of dark noise Indeed it is so low that subtracting a dark frame can actually INCREASE the noise in your images This is because the statistical noise of the dark frame can exceed the pattern noise from warm pixels and hence add to that of the subtracted result If your test pict...

Page 16: ...CCD may possess so a bias frame subtraction can clean up any warm columns or shadings that are created during readout To record a bias frame cover the camera aperture and take a 1000th of a second exposure If you take at least 10 such frames and average them together the resulting master bias can be used to clean up readout defects for many months before CCD ageing changes require another set to b...

Page 17: ...is now time to process the luminance brightness and contrast of the image to get the best visual appearance First use the Normal contrast stretch to darken the background by setting the Black slider just below the main peak of the histogram Alternatively you can use the Remove Background option to let the software decide on the best setting This will greatly reduce the background brightness and th...

Page 18: ...t you like this result from this simple processing Further small refinements are usually possible and you will become expert at judging the best way to achieve these as your experience increases As a rough guide the Filters menu can be used to sharpen soften or noise reduce the image Strong High Pass filters are usually not a good idea with deep sky images as the noise will be strongly increased a...

Page 19: ...ng a Barlow lens Many camera users comment on the difficulty of finding the correct focus when taking pictures of Jupiter etc This is usually due to poor seeing conditions which are only too common but may also be due in part to poor collimation of your telescope Please ensure that the optics are properly aligned as shown by star testing or by using one of the patent collimation aids that are wide...

Page 20: ...me of between 0 1 and 1 seconds and Saturn will need between 0 5 and 2 seconds Processing a planetary image Planetary images have one major advantage over deep sky images when you come to process them they are MUCH brighter with a correspondingly better signal to noise ratio This means that aggressive sharpening filters may be used without making the result look very noisy and so some of the effec...

Page 21: ...useful accessory is the add on autoguider head which takes its power and control signals directly from the SXVR camera via the 18 way socket on its rear panel The autoguider is only 1 25 in diameter and has a video style CS mount thread in its nose so video lenses may be attached The guider may be used with either an off axis prism assembly mounted in front of the SXVR camera or with a separate gu...

Page 22: ...or example use a similar guider input socket but have re arranged connections The autoguider installed on a 70mm refractor guide scope in the author s garden the camera shown is the older SXVF version but the connections are the same To use the autoguider please proceed as follows 1 Having started the SXVR H694C software open the autoguider control panel by clicking on the autoguider menu button ...

Page 23: ...f necessary 5 Move the mount until the required object for imaging is properly framed in the main CCD image leave the guider menu and use the main camera control panel as necessary 6 Re open the guider control panel start imaging and try to locate a clearly visible guide star If necessary make adjustments to the guide telescope or off axis guider until one is found 7 Press Stop and then press Sele...

Page 24: ...e with tiny circular stars If the stars are not circular you may need to alter the guiding parameters or investigate the rigidity and drive performance of your mount A lot of information can be deduced by watching the behaviour of the guide star in the guider frame If it is continually moving between two locations either side of the green cross then the RA or Dec pixels per second value is set too...

Page 25: ...asonable minimum Now go to the Multiple Exposure Options and select a number of exposures to take You can also select to average the images rather than adding them and there is a Alternative Slew Mode available which uses the correlation of image areas rather than a single star This mode can be better in dense star fields Another option is Auto remove dark frame This is advisable with S S images a...

Page 26: ...images and taking the flat field Any relative changes of focus and rotation etc will upset the match between flat field and image and the result will be poor correction of the errors The other necessity for recording a good flat field is a source of very even illumination of the telescope field This is surprisingly difficult to achieve and many designs of light source have appeared in the literatu...

Page 27: ...ery few signs of the original artefacts and you can then process it in the normal way The SXVR H694C accessory ports The SXVR H694C is provided with two ports for use with accessories The Autoguider output port is a 6 way RJ11 socket which is compatible with the standard autoguider input of most telescope mounts It provides 4 active low opto isolator outputs and a common return line capable of sin...

Page 28: ...more obvious There is no great difficulty in removing such particles on the outside surface by the careful use of a lens cleaning cloth lens pen or air duster and so you should have little trouble with this aspect of maintenance Dust on the CCD faceplate is a much greater nuisance as it casts very sharply defined and dark shadows and it entails dismantling the camera to get rid of it To clean the ...

Page 29: ...rse order and the job is done Dealing with condensation The SXVR H694C 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 and can result in c...

Page 30: ...750 x 2200 x 4 54uM pixels in a 12 48 x 9 98mm active area This EXview device CCD type Sony ICX694ALG EXview interline imager CCD size Active area 12 48mm x 9 98mm CCD pixels 2750 x 2200 pixel array Each pixel is 4 54 x 4 54uM square Bayer Matrix RGBG primary colour Well depth Full res mode 18 000e Binned 2x2 mode approx 22 000e Mean visual QE 70 77 at peak 580nM Useful spectral response 360nM 110...

Page 31: ...ll only be used for normal purposes described in the standard operating instructions and within the relevant safety standards of the country where the equipment is used 2 Repairs under guarantee will be free of charge providing proof of purchase is produced and that the equipment is returned to the Service Agent at the Purchaser s expense and risk and that the equipment proves to be defective 3 Th...

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