Alan Holmes Founder and President New products at SBIG.
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Transcript of Alan Holmes Founder and President New products at SBIG.
![Page 1: Alan Holmes Founder and President New products at SBIG.](https://reader030.fdocuments.us/reader030/viewer/2022033100/56649db25503460f94aa2606/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Alan HolmesFounder and President
New products at SBIG
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SBIG is Now Part Of Aplegen
• New Management intends to:– increase astronomical product research
and development– adds new cameras with features suited
to life sciences applications such as:• Gel Imaging• Fluorescence microscopy
• New CEO is Ron Bissinger, known for amateur exoplanet measurements
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Past SBIG Cameras over the last 23 years
• ST-4 (my baby)• ST-6• ST-5/ 237/ PixCel 237• ST-7/ 8/ 9/ 10/ 2000 line• STL-11000/ 6303/ 1001 line• STX-16803/ 6303• ST-402/ 1603/ 3200• SG-4
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New Camera Models in Last Year
• ST-I• ST-8300 and STF-8300• STX-6303
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ST-I is a new Guider/Planet Camera
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ST-I Features
• 640 x 480 pixel interline CCD• 7.4 micron square pixels• Exposures as short as 1 millisecond• 16 bit A/D converter• 10 electrons read noise• powered off USB port• Shutter for automatic dark frames• Fits in 1.25 inch eyepiece tube
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ST-I Comes with a Case and Software
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A Guiding package is Available that is all Most Users Need
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Planetary Imaging is also Possible
(Not the best but it’s mine!)
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ST-8300 is our most Popular Camera
• Features– 8.3 million pixels – 16 bit A/D– 38 degree C cooling– 5.4x5.4 micron pixels - good for refractors– EXCELLENT low dark current– Just went on sale at a great price - $1795 US
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5 (and 8) Position Filter Wheels are Available
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The ST-8300 is capable of Great Images!
Peter Clausen
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Peter Clausen
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New STF-8300 Provides Faster Readout
10 Megapixels / Second Full Frame Image Buffer Readout and Download Simultaneously Download Full Frame < 1 sec. User Rechargeable Desiccant Plug Internal Image Processing – Raw or Processed
Even-illumination (Photometric) Shutter 32-bit and 64- bit drivers for all Windows O/S Equinox Image and Equinox Pro for Mac Base Price $2495 US
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STX-16803 is our largest CCD Camera
•4096x4096 pixels
•9 micron pixels
•Excellent Cooling
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Martin Pugh
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STX Images -Johannes Schedler - Austria
M97-Owl Nebula (too far north for Santiago!)
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More STX Images from Johannes
NGC 5033
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New STX-6303 is Excellent for Narrow Band Imaging and Faint Objects
Adriana Sherman, Guatemala
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New Accessory Products at SBIG
• Differential Guiding • ST-8300 Off Axis Guider
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Differential Guiding Solves a Difficult Problem
• When guiding at long focal lengths with a guide scope, the scope-to-scope alignment drifts due to:– Gravity direction changes– Thermal effects– mirror flop– mechanical shifts
• Differential guiding eliminates all of these
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SBIG’s New Technique: Differential Guiding *
• An artificial star is created near the imaging CCD focal plane
• Beam of light from artificial star exits telescope
• Beam is retro-reflected into guide scope• Guide scope views both artificial star and
background star• Separation of artificial and real stars is
maintained by guiding* Patented
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Differential Guiding Diagram
Main Scope
Guide Scope
LED
Guide Camera
Retro-Reflector
Imaging
Camera
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Guiding is Adjusted to Maintain X and Y Offsets Constant
Guide Star
Artificial Star
X
Y
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Retroreflector is Derived from Corner Cube and Dove Prism
Corner CubeDove Prism
Beam is exactly retro-reflected, and displaced to outside the telescope aperture. Retro-reflected angle is insensitive to small mechanical misalignments.
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Testing was Performed in my Backyard
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A Celestron Edge 14 was used for the Test
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Retroreflector Assembly and Guide Scope (Hutech 50 mm F/5)
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ST-8300 and Artificial Star Generator
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Conventionally Guided Image - 30 minutes
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Differential Guided Image - 3 x 30 Minutes - no Shifts!
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It Works Great! (ST-8300C Data Added)
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New Off-Axis Guider for ST-8300
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Guider Ray Trace Diagram
• Allows guiding in front of the filters• Also provides focal reduction for 2X
more area
Imager CCD ST-I
CCD
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It uses an ST-I and Mounts to Filter Wheel
Low Profile – Adds only 19mm backfocus to camera and filter wheel (total about 58mm)
Built-in relay lenses and 0.7X reducer doubles the field of view of the ST-i
Guide camera can be mounted at 90 degrees x 4
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St-I Guider Image at F/3.5! Stars are excellent for guiding
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Celestron Edge 14 Image using OAG With ST-8300
Alan Holmes
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OAG Makes Guiding Narrow Band Images Easy
Peter Clausen
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-Astrophotography Hints-
Stray Light and Flat Fields
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An Example of the Problem - An Expensive Refractor with an ST-8300
• Center to edge variation = 6%• There is NO vignetting in either image!• “Hot Spot” is caused by glints off internal cylindrical
surfaces near CCD Camera
Green Flat Field IR (940 nm) Flat Field
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Measuring Stray Light: My “CCD View” Pinhole Camera
• Chamber window of ST-3200 replaced with a tiny lens
View of my office through a short 1.25 inch nosepiece
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Looking into that High-End Refractor
Actual Aperture!
Bad Stuff!
Problem is glints off of “black” anodized surfaces. Total Stray Light is 8% Green, 18% IR
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$5 Million Peso (!) RC Scope
Green - 13% Stray Light Near IR - 37% Stray Light
Aperture Edge
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Why is this important? - Astronomical Features have very Low Contrast against the Sky Background
9% contrast
1% contrast
(Images are from a Dark Site)
Tony Hallas
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Stray Light is also a Serious Problem for Photometry
Vignetting Stray Light Sum
Using a flat field to correct an image with stray light incorrectly increases brightness of stars near edge of field
(Looks like vignetting but it’s not)
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A Collection of “Black” Objects Imaged at Near Infrared Wavelengths (940 nm)
White Business Card
Black Felt (79% reflectivity
Black Paper
Flat Black Paint
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Flat Black Paint can solve this Problem - User Flat Field Images
STL-11K - Flat Field with Moonlite Focuser and ribbed draw tube
Flat field after painting draw tube with flat black paint
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How to detect the problem yourself
• Point your telescope at a flat field screen
• Put your eye at the point where you usually insert the camera
• Look into the tube
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What can you do?
• Paint black anodized surfaces Flat Black– I prefer barbeque black - low temperature paints may use
dyes that are transparent beyond 700 nm• Add thin shim rings to work as knife edges baffles• Do NOT use incandescent bulbs for flat fields
– Use white LEDS instead – Better, but still not perfect
• Sky flats may help - matches spectrum better for LRGB imaging• Use flat field for each color if doing RGB images• Photometrists should map response by moving stars around in
field to detect problem
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It is Worth the Effort!
Tony Hallas
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Particularly with Huge Mosaics (Rogelio Bernal Andreo - 19 APODs!)