Choosing A CCD Camera by Ian King - Ian King Imaging

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Ch oosin g A CCD Ca m e r a by I a

Ch oosin g A CCD Ca m e r a by I a n Kin g

Modern day CCD cam eras used by am at eur ast ronom ers ar e am azingly pow er ful and capable devices. Placed at t he prim e focus of even very m odest sm all apert ure t elescopes, a good CCD cam er a can produce breat ht aking colour im ages t hat far out st rip any t hing t hat can be produced wit h a sim ilar inst rum ent using film , or t hat can be seen visually .

Here at I anKing I m aging we aim t o dem onst rat e t hat t aking high qualit y CCD im ages does not r equir e lot s of exper t ise or high end inst rum ent at ion. But by st icking t o a set of basic principles v irt ually anyone, aft er a brief period of fam iliarisat ion, can be t aking im ages sim ilar in qualit y t o t hose t hat oft en ador n t he pages of t he popular ast ronom y m agazines. One of t he first quest ions beginning am at eur im agers oft en ask is w hich CCD cam era t o purchase first ? Of cour se t his will part ly depend upon budget , but we hope t hat t his art icle will give t he reader som e insight int o how t o choose a CCD cam era.

Basics CCD cam eras offer num erous adv ant ages over conv ent ional film . The CCD is able t o capt ure im ages wit h a far gr eat er dynam ic r ange t han convent ional film , giving t he am at eur t he possibilit y of capt ur ing high qualit y dat a even under light pollut ed skies. CCD cam er as produce digit al im ages. A decent cooled CCD cam era has cert ain advant ages ov er uncooled low cost dev ices. Most CCD CAm eras feat ur e high graded CCDs w it h ver y low noise char act erist ics. By cooling t he CCD t o appr ox 30 degr ees below t he am bient t em per at ure, t hese cam er as are able t o produce higher qualit y im ages t han low cost uncooled cam eras. Som e of t he cam eras we sell cool t he sensor even furt her t o approx - 50 degr ees celsius below am bient . There are a num ber of fact ors t o t ake int o considerat ion when choosing a CCD cam era. 1) The Physical size of t he CCD. This will det er m ine t he field of view provided wit h any given focal lengt h t elescope. The larger t he CCD t he w ider t he field of view . The following calculat ion w ill det erm ine t he field of v iew of a given CCD cam era. Field of View in arc m inut es = 3438 x CCD Size in m m / focal lengt h in m m An exam ple is as follow s using a St arlight SXVR- H9 and 80m m F6 refract or 3438 x 9/ 480 = 64.4 ar c m inut es or a lit t le over 1 degree

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07-02-2014

Choosing A CCD Camera by Ian King - Ian King Imaging

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2) The Resolut ion or num ber and size of t he pix els on t he CCD. For exam ple The SXVR- H9 has 1392 by 1040 6.45um pixels. Com par e t his t o ear ly CCD cam er as w hich t ypically used CCDs w it h 375 by 244 25um pixels. You can see from t his t hat t he m odern SXV- H9 w ill pr ovide far higher resolut ion im ages and can be used very successfully wit h short focal lengt h inst r um ent s. Conver sley t his sensor appears sm all com par ed t o t hat found in a t ypical DSLR cam era. How ev er as m any cust om ers who upgrade from a DSLR t o a t ypical cooled CCD Cam era find - t he m uch great er sensit iv it y, m uch low er noise, great er dynam ic range and abilit y t o m ak e full use of narr ow band filt ers allows a CCD Cam era wit h a m uch sm aller sensor t o easily out per form a DSLR. The resolut ion per pixel on t he CCD is known as t he sam pling rat e. The sam pling r at e in ar c seconds can be det er m ined by perfor m ing t he follow ing sm all calculat ion. 206265 x pixel size/ focal lengt h of t elescope in m m An exam ple is as follow s using an SXV- H9 and an 80m m F6 refr act or 206265 x .00645/ 480 = 2.77 arc seconds Cam er as w it h sm all pixels and lot s of t hem , pr oduce high sam pling rat es and give m uch bet t er perform ance w hen used wit h short focal lengt h sm all apert ure inst rum ent s. Rem em ber! I t is far easier t o obt ain qualit y im ages wit h per fect t racking by using a high qualit y shor t focal lengt h and sm all aper t ur e inst rum ent , pr oviding you use a CCD cam era t hat provides a good enough sam pling rat e. I m aging at m uch longer focal lengt hs is m ore dem anding, part icularly in t erm s of t racking accuracy r equir ed, and oft en t akes m uch longer exposures. 3) CCD Noise Charact erist ics Most deep sk y t arget s are faint . Even t he show case t arget s lik e M42 and M31 have ver y faint out er com ponent s. Uncooled low cost im agers perform quit e poorly w hen im aging faint dat a. High qualit y cooled CCD cam eras are m uch low er noise devices and perfor m t o a m uch higher level. For ex am ple t he current cam eras from t he lik es of St arlight Xpr ess or ATI K using ult ra low noise SOny Exv iew sensors have ver y low noise cooled CCDs. Under t y pical condit ions wit h t hese cam eras it is not even necessary t o t ake a dar k fram e and subt ract it fr om your m ain im age prov iding you dit her w hilst guiding 4) Aut oguiding

Aut oguiding is a v ery im por t ant considerat ion. Due t o t heir sensit ivit y CCD cam er as are capable of show ing up sm all guiding errors wit h fiendish accuracy. Many im agers hav e found t hat t he best result s can be obt ained by using an Aut oguider t o guide t he m ount ing. Aut oguiders com e in various shapes and for m s, from sim ple w ebcam s t o elaborat e dedicat ed guiders. How ever m ost webcam based guiders have low sensit ivit y and st ruggle t o guide on anyt hing but bright st ar s. Choosing a CCD cam era wit h an opt im ised aut oguider can m ake t he differ ence bet w een success and failure. Modern aut oguiders ar e available in various form s. Guiding w it h a guidescope work s w ell w hen im aging t hrough t elescopes wit h fix ed and r igid opt ics. Current highly sensit ive

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Choosing A CCD Camera by Ian King - Ian King Imaging

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guiders such as t he St ar light Xpress Lodest ar work ver y w ell w it h Off Axis Guiders and using an OAG w it h a Lodest ar is a superb way of achieving a self guiding cam era and dispensing wit h t he need t o use a Guidescope. The SBI G Self Guiding cam eras now feat ur e t he guide sensor w it hin t he filt er w heel and not behind t he filt ers t hus ov ercom ing t he m ain w eakness of t he original self guiding design where t he guide sensor w as behind t he filt er s t hus m ak ing guide st ar aquisit ion difficult at t im es.

5) Use Of Filt ers Som e of t he easiest t o obt ain and best qualit y im ages are being t aken by am at eurs operat ing in highly light pollut ed locat ions using sm all aper t ur e inst r um ent s and a CCD cam er a equipped w it h narrow band filt ers.

Narrow band filt ers allow only narrow select w avelengt hs of light t o pass, but when used w it h a CCD cam era t hat is sensit iv e t o t hese w avelengt hs w ill produce very spect acular im ages t hat are com plet ely im per vious t o light pollut ion or even in m ost cases m oon light . I t is im port ant t herefore t o choose a cam era t hat has good sensit ivit y at t he im port ant narrow band wavelengt hs of Hydrogen Alpha ( 656nm ) and Ox ygen I I I ( 499nm and 501nm ) There are m any hundreds of spect acular em ission t arget s in t he sky t hat em it st rongly in t hese wavelengt hs and if im aged using t he above filt ers can pr ovide a spect acle t hat is alm ost im possible t o obt ain w hen using conv ent ional LRGB filt ers or colour cam eras. Most of t he m odern CCD Cam eras feat ure sensors t hat are ideal for im aging wit hg nar row band filt ers. The very popular Kodak 8300 and SOny 694 sensors for ex am ple ar e bot h very sensit ive t o t he im port ant nar row band wavelengt hs. 6) Mount ings And last ly no art icle on CCD im aging w ould be com plet e w it hout m ent ioning t he necessit y t o choose a decent qualit y m ount .

Wit h t odays crop of high resolut ion CCD cam eras, m any am at eur s are finding t hat t hey have m uch great er success in pr oducing high qualit y spect acular im ages by em ploying cam eras such as t he SXV series w it h sm all apert ure inst rum ent s placed on good qualit y port able m ount ings. For ex am ple, a m odern CCD Cam er a will produce highly r esolv ed im ages even at t he prim e focus of an 80m m apert ure refr act or. Place t his com binat ion ont o a decent m ount and w ell guided im ages are virt ually guarant eed. I m aging w it h longer focal lengt h t elescopes is m ore dem anding and requires a lot of guiding precision. Mount t echnology has exploded in t he last few y ears. Decent budget ast ro im aging m ount s like SKywat chers NEQ6 have opened up doors t o am at eurs who prev iously would not have been able t o afford a m ount w it h enough pr ecision and load bearing capacit y for deep sky im aging. Adv anced m ount s likw t he belt dr iven Avalon r ange or t he encoder based 10 Micron range ar e at t he forefront of m odern m ount t echnology and have t he precision t o cope w it h longer focal lengt hs.

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Likew ise Param ount have been t he leader s in ult ra high qualit y m ount s for ast ro im aging for som e years and t heir cur rent MX and fort hcom ing MEI I m ount s are superb in every r espect .

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