Ultrastar PRO handbook Issue 1, September 2020
Handbook for the SX ‘Ultrastar PRO’ Imaging
and Guiding Camera
Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress ‘Ultrastar PRO’ 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 Ultrastar PRO is a higher QE and larger area version of the very popular ‘Superstar’ and is a very
compact imaging camera, which is powered and operated via a single USB2.0 computer connection. It
also provides an opto-isolated output connection for direct control of most mounts, via their
‘Autoguider’ sockets. This output is compatible with the ‘ST4’ style of RJ12 connection and supplies 4
‘pull down’ direction lines and a common return. Alternatively, you may send the mount control
signals via a serial connection from the guider control computer. The Ultrastar PRO utilises a very
sensitive Sony ‘ExView2’ CCD (the ICX825AL) with an array of 1392 x 1040 pixels in a ‘two-thirds-inch’
format. Although the chip is not cooled, it has a very low dark signal and very little readout noise, so it
can be used to guide on faint stars that are well beyond the reach of webcams and most CMOS chip
based cameras.
