Starlight Xpress TRIUS PRO-814C Manual Download Page 1

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Handbook for the Trius PRO-814C Issue 1 September 2020

Manual for the TRIUS PRO-814C colour CCD

camera

Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress ‘TRIUS PRO 814C’ camera. We hope that

you will be very pleased with the performance of this product. Please register your

product and warranty at

https://forms.gle/tmsHEJfQG2bLJjr57

The TRIUS PRO-814C 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. This ‘PRO’ camera uses an updated version of the original TRIUS

main board and has both improved read noise and faster download time. It features

an internal USB hub with 3 external ports and a dry argon CCD chamber fill. The USB

hub permits several other devices to share the single USB connection and greatly

reduces the number of cables required in a typical set-up. For example, a Lodestar PRO

or Ultrastar PRO guide camera and an SX filter wheel could use two of the USB ports

and the third might connect to an electric focuser, or similar peripheral. The argon fill,

along with other improvements to the cooler stack, has improved the delta T to about

-42 degrees C below ambient. The camera also includes a CCD temperature

monitoring circuit that provides regulated set-point cooling of the chip, an adjustable

chip alignment plate and a very compact overall size.

Summary of Contents for TRIUS PRO-814C

Page 1: ...on of the original TRIUS main board and has both improved read noise and faster download time It features an internal USB hub with 3 external ports and a dry argon CCD chamber fill The USB hub permits several other devices to share the single USB connection and greatly reduces the number of cables required in a typical set up For example a Lodestar PRO or Ultrastar PRO guide camera and an SX filte...

Page 2: ...y imaging especially with an H alpha filter The H alpha QE is about 65 considerably better than other interline chips and even greater than the popular KAF8300 CCD The full frame download time is approximately 4 seconds and a binned 4x4 download takes only 0 5 seconds so finding and centring are very quick and easy in this mode Here is a diagram of the connectors to be found on the rear panel of t...

Page 3: ...f displaying an image with a minimum of 1024 x 768 pixels and 24 bit colour A medium specification Pentium with between 1GHz and 4GHz processor speed is ideal but I recommend avoiding some of the lower specification Netbook computers as they can t handle the fast data stream from the camera Please note that USB 2 0 operates at a very high speed and cannot operate over very long cables Five metres ...

Page 4: ...ers Point the installer at the appropriate driver folder on your USB Stick 32 bit or 64 bit and the driver installation should proceed smoothly Ignore any warnings about the driver having not been tested by Microsoft At the end of this process the USB interface will be installed The XP drivers will show up as a BlockIOClass device and the camera software will be able to access it You can confirm t...

Page 5: ...files SXVIO sys and generic sys which should fix the problem The newer Signed drivers create a device in the USB section of the devices list and this will be found at the bottom of the device manager window 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 ...

Page 6: ...6 Now click on the camera icon at the top of the screen If the USB connection is OK a message box will inform you of the Handle number for the SXVIO interface and various other version details etc Click OK and the main camera control panel will now be seen ...

Page 7: ...u are imaging during the winter months Under indoor conditions the low airflow will limit the cooling capability 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 Connecting ...

Page 8: ...additional complications which are best avoided at this early stage There are two simple options one of which is available to everyone with a sheet of aluminium baking foil 1 Attach a standard M42 SLR camera lens to the TRIUS H814C using the 26mm spacer to achieve the correct focal distance Or 2 Create a Pin hole lens by sticking a sheet of aluminium baking foil over the end of the adaptor and pri...

Page 9: ...e exposure time but a camera lens can be adjusted for good focus and so you might want to try this to judge the high image quality that it is possible to achieve Various other exposure options are available as can be seen in the picture above For example you can Bin the download 2x2 or more to achieve greater sensitivity and faster download or enable Continuous mode to see a steady stream of image...

Page 10: ...hip surface This is normal and will disappear once the image has been converted to colour by the software Unlike commercial digital cameras astronomical colour cameras do not normally output a colour image directly This is so that various image corrections can be performed on the raw data e g dark frame subtraction as these are impractical after conversion to colour Also note that binning the raw ...

Page 11: ...of the light will tend to produce a Green Blue shift in the balance A partial correction of this bias is provided by selecting this option but the best option is to use an infra red blocking filter when taking daylight shots see 5 below 2 Light Pollution Correction This option is for deep sky colour images where a strong colour bias is often present in the sky background This option attempts to re...

Page 12: ...by colour image data 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 Colour conversion involves running a software routine which uses the brightness data from each pixel to generate colour values As the brightness of each pixel is related to the colour of light fa...

Page 13: ...and moving the blue start point will turn it more Yellow Do not move the start points beyond the start of the main burst of histogram data or you will introduce colour errors into low saturation parts of the image Just move the sliders by small amounts in the clear area below the main peak until the background is nicely balanced In some cases the histograms may all start a long way above zero usua...

Page 14: ...ened picture The Contrast routines are used to brighten or dull the image highlights and shadows A Normal stretch is a simple linear operation where two pointers the black and white limits can be set at either side of the image histogram and used to define new start and end points The image data is then mathematically modified so that any pixels that are to the left of the black pointer are set to...

Page 15: ...camera and make an extension tube to set the field stop at this distance from the drawtube end Cut down 35mm film cassette containers are a convenient diameter for making the spacer tube and may be split to adjust their diameter to fit the drawtube It is necessary to set up a good optical match between your camera and the telescope Most SCTs have a focal ratio of around F10 which is too high for m...

Page 16: ...allow 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 00369 205920 0 25 3040mm This is approximately F15 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 buyin...

Page 17: ...quality achieved you might like to trim the settings of your par focal or flip mirror eyepiece to match the current camera position Although you can reach a good focus by the above method many observers prefer to use additional 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 p...

Page 18: ... the same exposure as your light frame but with the telescope objective covered so that no light can enter It records only the hot pixels and thermal gradients of your CCD so that these defects are largely removed when the dark frame is subtracted from the light frame However the TRIUS PRO 814C CCD is quite different from those used in other brands of camera and generates an extremely low level of...

Page 19: ...frames when using the TRIUS PRO 814C A bias frame is essentially a zero exposure dark frame and records any minor readout defects that the 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 to...

Page 20: ...background due to light pollution so it 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...

Page 21: ...r to use a Non linear stretch to compress the brighter regions while expanding the faint data Here is the result of a non linear stretch on the M42 image The image now looks quite impressive and I hope that you like the 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 A...

Page 22: ...ctures of the planets Planetary imaging is in many ways quite different from deep sky imaging Most deep sky objects are faint and relatively large so a short focal length and a long exposure are needed while planets are bright and very small needing long focal lengths and short exposures High resolution is critical to achieving good results and I have already shown how a suitable focal length can ...

Page 23: ...ar zero due to the dark background If you use too short an exposure time the image noise level will be increased and if too long a time is used you will saturate the highlights and cause white patches on the image With the recommended focal length Jupiter and Mars will both need an exposure time of between 0 1 and 1 seconds and Saturn will need between 0 5 and 2 seconds Processing a planetary imag...

Page 24: ...prove the signal to noise ratio In this case the averaging option should always be used or the result is likely to exceed the dynamic range of the software and saturate the highlights Aligning the images is always something of a problem as there are rarely any stars to use when imaging the planets but Jupiter s satellites can be useful reference points Otherwise you will have to find a well define...

Page 25: ...inimum 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 as the slew...

Page 26: ...to use a flat field for image correction then it must be taken with care It is most important that the optical system MUST NOT be disturbed between taking your original 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 fi...

Page 27: ...s of the original artefacts and you can then process it in the normal way The TRIUS H814C guider port The TRIUS PRO 814C is provided with a guide port for use with ST4 compatible mounts 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 s...

Page 28: ...the optical window facing downward 2 Remove the two M3 screws and the M8 nut from the camera back plate and ease the plate out of the camera body Unplug the fan lead from the camera PCB 3 Withdraw the body cylinder and unscrew the two top spacer pillars from the PCB Now gently lift the PCB off the 20 way connector NOTING THE ORIENTATION OF THE BOARD for correct replacement later Now remove the low...

Page 29: ...stic gas tubing that is used with small welding bottles will probably be sufficient To recharge the chamber first remove both gas plugs and then insert the tapered end of the argon cylinder tube into one port Gently turn on the argon supply for about 10 seconds and then refit the plug into the output port The filling tube may then be extracted and the second port re sealed N B DO NOT leave the cam...

Page 30: ...pixel array Each pixel is 3 69 x 3 69uM square Bayer Matrix RGGB primary colour Well depth Full res mode 17 000e Binned 2x2 mode approx 20 000e Mean visual QE 70 75 at peak 580nM Useful spectral response 360nM 1100nM Readout noise Approx 4e RMS typical 8e max Back focal distance The CCD is approximately 17mm from the barrel front Camera size 75mm diameter x 70mm long ...

Page 31: ... of Purchasers CONDITIONS OF GUARANTEE 1 The equipment shall only be used for normal purposes described in the standard operating instructions and within the relevant safety standards of the country where the equipment isused 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 an...

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