fit from all that we put into SkyShed POD-S. Existing SkyShed POD owners who would like to move to the new taller Wall, can also add the new SkyShed Pier Base Extension to raise their scope along with the new Wall height. It offers a simple bolt on design using your existing SkyShed Pier bolt pattern. Due to the new taller Wall, Doorway, Bays, and new Dome style, there is 111 cubic feet more room in a SkyShed POD-S XL5, with tall Wall/Bays vs. the original SkyShed POD XL5 with original Wall/Bays. The customizability of design offers the flexibility to choose between zero SkyShed POD-S Bay panels (5 wall panels and one Door panel), or 1 – 5 original height SkyShed POD-S (Mark III), or 1 – 5 taller SkyShed POD-S Bays (Mark IV), which replace the Wall panels. We incorporated debossed circles in the Dome and Wall panels. Not only do these add strength of the overall structure, they also provide a unique look and feel. We are making SkyShed POD-S available in seven colors to contribute to the customizability of the SkyShed POD-S. These include: • Lunar Gray • Discovery White • Midnight Gray • Cobalt Blue • Hunter Green • Forest Green • Desert Tan The Dome and Wall can be different colors if you like for an even more custom look. For instance, you can have a Discovery White Dome on a Desert Tan Wall/Bays. The SkyShed POD-S is available with pre-assembly, wiring, and shipping with major parts assembled and installed. And it can be shipped in a 20’ sea container to just about anywhere in the world. When Will SkyShed POD-S Be Available? We’re currently ramping up for production beginning in mid-Spring ‘23. The first SkyShed POD-S models will ship at that time. We will continue to roll-out units thru ’23 and beyond. Production numbers will increase as we get our “production-feet under us” as it did with the original SkyShed POD. Orders will be taken and will be put in line as they are received. There is a form on our website you can use to place an order. You put down your deposit at that time and we will let you know the timeline for your SkyShed POD-S to be delivered. And, if for some reason you decide any time prior to delivery you would like to cancel your order (stuff in life does happen), we will promptly refund your deposit. SkyShed POD-S Pricing As we ramp up for production we are defining and refining our costs and selling prices. We have a pretty good idea about prices now and will publish complete numbers before production begins. Those who have placed orders can decide at that time whether they want to proceed or not. We estimate that model prices will range from about $5KUS to $10K US, depending on which model, how many Bays are included, if the Motor/Control option is added, etc. So, about the THE MAKING OF SKYSHED POD-S Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 51
52 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY THE MAKING OF SKYSHED POD-S same price as a great scope mount these days. Those who place orders will receive regular progress updates. We will also be posting updates on the SkyShed POD-S website. As for the shipping costs, the new post Covid reality is that shipping costs have significantly increased and are entirely out of our control. We expect shipping to be in the range of $1,500 – $2,500 inside North America depending on how far you are from our factory in Southern Ontario, Canada. Keep in mind that we are shipping a substantial building, sometimes thousands of miles. For shipping outside of North America, we will be glad to talk with you about the estimated cost. To Close We've created an extensive website - www.skyshedpod-s.com - with lots of info including an in-depth FAQ area. We'll be adding more info to the website including drawings with measurements to help you in your planning. We also are incorporating an extensive software FAQ area which will be full of information about connectivity and remote use. And purchasing your SkyShed POD-S isn’t the end. We pride ourselves on our customer support and are always available by email or through our web site. We have a dedicated and robust discussion group and we even offer the availability of 1-on-1 personalized “bythe-hour support” if needed. I'm always around for a chat about your plans. It's what-we-do! Contact me through the info on the SkyShed PODS website. As you can tell, we very excited about our new SkyShed POD/POD-S line up! We think a lot of active astronomer/imagers are going to be very excited about it too. Clear Skies! Image 5 - SkyShed POD-S with imaging equipment. Note the room for multiple workstations and imaging setups
While it was 20 years ago that Wayne Parker launched SkyShed, he has been into amateur astronomy since his teenage years as he notes, “I divided my time between school, family, part time jobs, playing in local bands and setting up my little Celestron C5 scope.” And in the 80’s he was carrying his newly acquiredTelVue Genesis as hetoured in the band Glass Tiger and enjoyed opportunities like viewing through his scope on the roof of a Paris hotel while on tour with Tina Turner. And, like so many amateur astronomers who got busier in their professional and personal life, he found he was doing less and less astronomy each year as there was less time to, “… lug my ever increasing collection of scopes and accessories outside -- just in time for the clouds to roll in…” And this lack of time was the impetus to launch the original SkyShed POD. Today, even though he is busier than ever with the launch of SkyShed POD-S, he still finds time in his POD for astroimaging sessions. As he notes, “To maximize my timein the POD, I utilize a one-shot camera. While I love the artistry available with utilizing mono cameras, my goal is to have as much time to explore the many amazing night sky targets available in my much too limited time in my POD. With the “instant access” my POD provides,I’m able to capture dozens of deepsky images per season.” The following pages offer images that weretaken byWaynein his POD using the following equipment (All images 1.5 - 3 hours in Bortle 4 skies): • Celestron 14" Edge HD • HyperStar V.4 - f1.9 • SkyWatcher EQ-8 Pro Rh • Altair 26C Pro TEC • Altair Pro Max LP Filter Or IDAZ NBZ • SkyShed POD MAX • SkyShed Pier • Captured with SharpCap • Green Swamp Server for Sky Watcher • Post Processing – PixInsight IMAGING WITH SKYSHED’S WAYNE PARKER Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 53 IMAGING WITH SKYSHED’S WAYNE PARKER Image 1 - NGC 7635, aka the Bubble Nebula, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11 imaging setups
Image 2 - California Nebula, aka NGC 1499, Sh2-220 54 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
Image 3 -Crescent Nebula, aka NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 55 IMAGING WITH SKYSHED’S WAYNE PARKER
Image 4 - The Eastern Veil, aka Caldwell 33 Image 5 - The Heart Nebula, aka the Running Dog Nebula, IC 1805, Sharpless 2-190
Don't Just C Capture a StarField U Use One Don t Just C Capture a StarField, U vides a larger ffeld of view when using an g ries ED90, with its optional 0.8x adjustable Géar Series ED90 f/6 Triplet APO Use One. cation up to 300x there is no chr e is no chromatic t more than double e than double. When used visu hen used visually d camera than 100mm class t a than 100mm class telescopes Our Flagship APO is Starfield Géar Se telescopes and gain class mounts. Collec telescope can still be ultimate telescope. W the GÉAR Series EDT115 and eries EDT115 f/7 Triplet A high magniffcation with great fo ct more light compared to 102 e used on modern 30lb paylo With a t ith a total weight of 15lbs eight of 15lbs, this v d is our reducer, pro The GÉAR S h er APO Starfield G at a magniffc that can cost APS-C based eat focal 2mm ad this mount! telescope but without needing to upgrade to a la length. Get an objective lens that is 20% larger than a 4" ger th age: abrasion. arger han a 4" package: only get incredible p edible performance, but a c , but a co When you are buying a GÉAR series triplet APO y e buying a GÉAR series triplet APO y GÉAR SERIES ng accessories etail bar ries table rotation. otation. ion focuser, omplete power et APO you not S The GÉAR Series ED80 hits the sweet spot betwee Starfield Géar Series ED80 f/6 Triplet AP With its adjustable r ith it dj t bl d it id ff ld 5 3 unmatched cost and performance for a triplet AP The GÉAR S he GÉAR Series ED80 hits the sweet spot between en PO t Retractable t Handle for tr t HD CNC tub t Camera An t Supports 2" with ball be t 2.5" heavy dut t Optical rep t Multicoated ° b PO. en ener s.com d Imaging Astronomer 8x adjustable reducer and 1.0x Flatt e dew shield transportation and mounting ac be rings and Vixen style dove ngle Adjuster " and 1.25" eyepiece accessor earings, that is also fully r , that is also fully rotatable r otat duty two speed rack and pinion fo ack and pini ort d optics www.sta Check Out Our Other Offe siblings, the GÉAR S , the GÉAR Series ED90 and GÉAR Series E offlers all of the premium GÉAR accessories of its 3.5° on a full-frame camera, ideal for big tar a, ideal for big targets. With its adjustable r ith its adjustable reducer, it pr , it provides a ffeld 5.3 . arfieldoptic erings for theVisual and available ailable t Optional 0. t Hard case t Retractable EDT115. bigger . And it ° by
Image 6 - The Western Veil, aka Caldwell 34 Image 7 - The Soil Nebula, aka Westerhout 5, Sharpless 2-199, LBN 667
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Image 8 - WR 134 is a variable Wolf-Rayet star located around 6,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus. Image 9 - The Elephant's Trunk Nebula (IC1396)
Image 10 - The Cygnus Wall, a portion of the North American Nebula (NGC 7000) Image 11 - The Pelican Nebula, a portion of the North American Nebula (NGC 7000)
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64 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY IMAGING WITH SKYSHED’S WAYNE PARKER Image 12 - Messier 31, aka M31, Andromeda Galaxy, NGC 224. Messier 32 is to the left of the center, Messier 110 is to the bottom-right.
IMAGING WITH SKYSHED’S WAYNE PARKER Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 65
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to US customers. Player One products are now available through Astro Hutech and are fully supported rdpress.com store Th h d l d t h tl i b th he cooled deepsky cameras are fu sc digiborg.wor astrohutech.s ull frame and APS-C sensor sizes. cheduled to come up shortly, in both
Since the early 1990’s when the cooled CCD camera first appeared on the market, cameras have become much more sophisticated. The first cameras were parallel port cameras with a very slow upload speed. Soon to be replaced by USB 2 cameras, then CMOS cameras and USB 3. All of this time the sensor sizes have been getting bigger and bigger. Cooling has been getting better with -35C below ambient temperature common, along with low noise. All of this has come with decreasing component prices and increasing availability of camera sensors. Many years ago, on a tour of the Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, the astronomer handed my college class a small case with a CCD sensor inside. It was passed around from student to student until it ended up in my hand. About that time the astronomer said, “Oh don’t drop that, it is worth about $250,000!” I just about dropped it!The sensor size was 800x800 pixels or .64 mega-pixels. Obviously, the price has dropped dramatically since it is not unusual for an amateur to buy a camera with 6224 x 4168 or 26 mega-pixels of TEC cooled camera. This size camera was just a dream when the Hubble space telescope was designed. In fact, Hubble used multiple sensors to overcome the sensor size limit. Though the cost of sensors and cameras has been coming down in recent years, inflation has ramped up. For some of us buying a $3,000 camera, no matter how good it is, is just not something we can do. With the current inflation, buying a $1,000 camera is just not practical for some of us. So, I had a dilemma, I needed a lighter weight camera than my old SBIG ST-8E parallel port Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 69 ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER By Paul Temple Image 1 - TPO 6” RC and the SBIG ST-8E on the Meade LXD600 mount.
camera to go on one of my telescopes. The ST-8 was great on the 11” SchmidtCassegrain but it needs work and is currently not working. It does work on the Explore Scientific AR102, TPO 6” RC and even on the Astrotech ED70 but it is awkward. The 72 second upload time makes it unsuitable for fast cadence astronomy. Plus, balancing is an issue on the small refractors. So, in looking around to find a lowcost camera with regulated cooling and a sensitive chip, there were two cameras that stood out in the affordability range. The Orion G3 and the Orion G4. I have a functioning Orion Star Shoot Deep Space Monochrome II imager. It has cooling but it isn’t regulated. It just cools about -20 below whatever the ambient temperature is. For casual imaging this is not big deal but for calibrated science imaging it is much easier to have a temperature-controlled camera. Otherwise, you have to keep shooting darks when the temperature changes during the night. The Star Shoot camera works well but the unregulated cooling still made it difficult to get consistent 70 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER Image 2 - Orion Star Shoot Deep Space Monochrome II imager camera looks exactly like the Orion G3 except the G3 has regulated Thermo-Electric-Cooling.
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calibration. The Orion G3 has the same Sony ICX429ALL chip as the Star Shoot Deep Space Monochrome Imager II. It is a 752x582 sensor with an 8.6 µm x 8.3 µm pixel size. This is a tiny sensor measuring 7.40mm x 5.95mm. The only difference that I could see between the two is that the G3 it had regulated TEC (Thermo-Electric Cooling). The biggest negative was the reviews said it only cooled about -10C below ambient temperature. RegulatedTEC is still better than the Orion Star Shoot II imager unregulated cooling but -10C is still is not ideal. This left the Orion G4 camera. This camera also has an imaging chip 752 x 582, 7.40mm x 5.95mm in size with 8.6 µm x 8.3 µm pixels, but is a Sony ICX829ALA instead of the Sony ICX429ALL like in the G3 and Star 72 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER Deep-Sky Plan ky Planner 8 is Her er 8 is Here! S From Knig rom Knig om Knightware: S Monito D p-Sky l nner 8 is Her 8 i H e! and visual observers. logging software for imagers Exceptional planning and From Knig ro K ightware: 2014 2013 Star Products SQM Reader Pr eader Pro 3 e: Re o 3 SQM Reader Pro 3 sky automatically with or the darkness of your SQM Reader Pro 3 e: www.knightware.biz Download trial edition at knightware.biz z Image 3 - Orion G4 camera with a ZWO manual filter wheel on the Explore Scientific AR102 telescope.
Shoot. In comparing the results of both cameras, the G4 has slightly increased sensitivity. Coupled with the -20 C regulated TEC this camera would be a better choice for scientific imaging. The biggest issue is the small size of the chip. A 752x582 is very small by today’s standards. Plus, the 8.6 µm x 8.3 µm of each pixel lends itself to longer focal length telescopes, though the field of view is correspondingly smaller. For those of us that started imaging with chip sizes like this, we know you can use it on a telescope of 800-1300 mm focal length but it is not easy. The finder must be perfectly aligned, pointing/tracking of the mount accurate and polar alignment very good. If these things are not functioning well, you will be in for a time of great frustration. However, I did not buy this camera for long focal length telescopes. In fact, I got it to use on the Explore Scientific AR102 refractor that I use for my primary imaging scope. With the AR102 the Orion G4 it has 2.6 arcseconds per pixel, well within the ideal 1-3 arcsecond per pixel range for photometry. It also gives a field of view around 56’ x 42’ which allows you to more easily find comparison stars. Compared to newer camera designs this is a small field of view but for those of us that remember working with 16’x12’ field of views this is adequate. This change will free up the ATIK 414EX to be used on theTPO 6” RC telescope with its 1360 mm focal length. The old Meade LXD600 mount tracks well enough to image M57 and do photometry of the central star using the 6” RC and ATIK 414 EX. The ATIK 414 EX uploads in 2 seconds so will give a faster cadence which is important for studying hot, white dwarf stars. The Orion G4 has been going through testing on the Astrotech ED 70 refractor mounted on the Meade LXD600 mount.The arcsecond per pixel for this scope with the G4 is not ideal at 4.17 but can still be used for photometry. In fact, on a recent test run, NSV11500 (the central star of M 57) showed its characteristic weird sine curve, micro-variations, using the ED70 and G4 without a filter. With a photometric V filter, ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 73 Image 4 - TPO 6” RC optical tube with the ATIK 414EX on the 29 year old Meade LXD600 mount. Image 5 - AstroTech ED70 telescope with the Orion G4 on the Meade LXD600 mount.
ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER NSV 11500 is around magnitude 15 but without a filter the intense blue/ violet color bumps it up to 12.8 magnitude. Though the ED70 is too small to get a good enough signal to noise ratio to achieve good scientific results the experiment successfully proved that you can do photometry with a short focal length telescope and the G4. The Orion G4 comes with the Orion Star Shoot G4 Deep Space Imaging Camera, 10' USB cable, 10' 12V DC power cable and Orion Camera Studio software download card. There is also a link to the drivers and Camera studio on the Orion webpage. The Orion Camera Studio works well and is a good beginner’s platform but I prefer to use Maxim camera control software or Sharpcap. The G4 is not a good planetary camera. It loses resolution with images shorter than 1 second. It is obvious this camera is made for stars and deep sky objects. The color version of the G4 would be 1/3rd times less sensitive than the monochrome, which still isn’t bad, but you would definitely need to uselonger integration times than the monochrome. Overall, this is a good beginner camera, especially for low-cost, easy, wide field viewing using short FL scopes. The quality of build is high (first thing I did was drop it on concrete without effect) and the regulated TEC good. The included software is adequate and does a good job, especially for a new imager. If you can live with the small field of view and -20 TEC, along with an affordable price, you should be good to go with this camera. 74 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY Image 6 - Light curve of NSV11500 using the G4 and ED70 telescope. ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY www.astronomytechnologytoday.com Do You Have an Article Idea For Us? IF SO, EMAIL US AT [email protected].
move your camera. sm diagonal. The luding sunspots Safe for both s 2" He Don't Just solar wedge is imaging-ready since you can fi The solar wedge easily attaches to your refra and surface detail. The Starfield Optics 2" Herschel solar wedge solar observation and photography erschel Solar Wedge t Capture a StarField, Use O , Use One. fine tune the image brightness without needing to rem actor telescope, replacing the standard 2" mirror or pris transforms how you can observe the sun's surface inc of the 2" polarizing filter by rotating the 2" ey Herschel wedge. Brightness can be adjusted The sun can be safely obser ely observed with the Star telescope lens. it removes all refflections between the filter a are known to give you a higher-contrast ima Solar wedges, compared to traditional film so t "OUJSFøFDUJPO DPBUFE QSJTN most refractors t NN PQUJDBM CBDL MFOHUI BMMPX adjustment range t 1PMBSJ[JOH öMUFS QSPWJEFT B XJEF C t #VJMU JO /% öMUFS t 7JTVBM BOE JNBHJOH VTF Key Features: yepiece by twisting rfield Optics and ge because olar filters, MSRP - $449.99 C MSRP - $449.99 CAD BDDFTTPSZ DIBOHFT XT GPS VTF XJUI CSJHIUOFTT www.st Check Out Our Other Ofi like never before! Get ready to see sunspots and solar surface g holder. tarffeldoptics.com fierings for the Visual and Imaging Astronomer MSRP - $449.99 C t *ODMVEFT BEBQUFS t UXJTU MPDL SJOH BMMPXT GPS GBTU B t NN DMFBS BQFSUVSF granulation
76 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER Image 7 - Dumbbell Nebula with ED70 and G4 camera.
Image 8 - M57 Planetary nebula with ED70 and G4 camera. ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 77
78 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY ORION G4 CAMERA A BUDGET IMAGER Image 9 - M2 Globular cluster with ED70 and G4 camera.
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You might ask, "What is the difference between a camera for EAA and one for astrophotography?". The answer is, nothing really. There is no hard and fast line between the two activities. Any camera that will work for astrophotography will work for EAA and vice-a-versa including DSLRs. Now, there are cameras that are more commonly used for EAA and these are cameras with CMOS sensors selling for a few hundred dollars to more than $1500. Based upon posts on multiple forums, I would estimate that the most common EAA cameras fall into the price range of $250 to $1300. Again, there is no hard and fast rule here. But you will find that the cameras costing more than $1500 are generally used by astrophotographers and not those doing EAA. Astrophotographers have traditionally used cameras with CCD sensors because of their higher sensitivity compared to CMOS sensors. But that is changing as the sensitivity of CMOS sensors is approaching that of CCD sensors while the CMOS sensors have the advantage of much lower read noise. Lower read noise makes live stacking of short exposures extremely practical for EAA. Another important point that needs to be made is the distinction between cameras for Deep Sky Object (DSO) viewing and cameras for planeAstronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 81 CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA By Curtis Macchioni Image 1 - Read Noise vs Gain for the QHY163c camera, from QHY website
tary viewing. Once again there is no hard and fast line between the two, but typically cameras for planetary work have smaller sensors, fewer pixels and higher frame rates. This is because the planets are small bright objects and lucky imaging is employed to capture thousands of sub-second frames from which a few hundred of the best images are used to create a final image. In contrast, DSOs are much larger and fainter and exposures are several seconds to tens of seconds in length. Having said this, both types of cameras can produce pleasing images of both types of objects. Cost For most of us, the cost of a camera for EAA is the primary driver of what we ultimately buy. Fortunately, it is not necessary to spend a lot of money for a camera for EAA. An entry level camera like a 1.2 Mega Pixel (MP) camera with a 6.1mm diagonal Sony IMX224 color sensor is available for under $200. If you already have a telescope on a motorized mount the cost of entry is very minimal. While a sensor like the IMX224 sensor is small, it is quite capable and provides a cost effective option for the EAA beginner. In fact, when first introduced around 2015, the ASI224MC using this sensor and costing $300 was widely popular as one of the earliest CMOS cameras to be employed by the EAA community. As larger CMOS sensors became available, cameras with increasing pixel count and sensor size have been widely adopted for EAA. It is now possible to find CMOS based astronomy cameras prices from the from the very inexpensive to many thousands of dollars. Many of the EAA cameras today have color sensors with pixel counts of ~9MP to ~20MP, and sensor diagonals of ~15mm to ~23mm. Obviously as the sensor size increases, the cost goes up as well. Other drivers of cost include a Peltier cooler to minimize thermal noise, an internal memory buffer to prevent lost frames during image download and a USB hub for connection to a focuser and guide camera. Color or Mono Perhaps the most important consideration when choosing a camera for EAA is whether to choose a color or monochrome camera. Many cameras are available with either color or mono (black and white) sensors. Color sensors are just mono sensors with a red, green and blue filter matrix on top of the individual pixels. This matrix is called a Bayer matrix after the Kodak scientist who invited it in 1976 to turn a mono camera into a color camera. Because the human eye is most sensitive to green light, the Bayer matrix is typically arranged as a 2 x 2 matrix of pixels with 2 green and 1 each red and 82 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA Image 2 - Cut-away view of an anti-dew heater.
blue filters. These days, the filters also act as micro lenses to focus off axis photons onto the pixel thereby maximizing the light collection sensitivity of the sensor. Sometimes cyan, magenta and yellow filters are used instead of red, green and blue but the result is the same. To realize the full real time viewing experience only a color camera can show the rich colors present in nebulae, star forming clusters in distant galaxies and the different colors of stars at various stages of their lives. Being able to view objects in color is one of the major advantages of EAA compared to viewing with an eyepiece (EP). Because of the filter matrix associated with a color camera, some sensitivity is lost compared to a mono camera as a tradeoff for the simplicity of a one shot color camera (OSC). While there is nothing preventing the use of a mono camera for EAA, they are more often used for astrophotography combined with external filters to capture images at each color which are combined later to form a full color image. Some EAA'rs use a mono camera to view DSOs in black and white in real time to take advantage of the added sensitivity of a mono camera, or even use a mono camera with one of the possible narrow band filters available (hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur) to view specific detail in deep sky objects. This may be a good approach if you ultimately want to pursue astrophotography as well. Cameras with the mono version of a particular sensor can cost significantly more than the color version which is another reason for the greater popularity of a OSC camera for EEA. Chip Size The size of the sensor chip will determine many important attributes of the camera. Most important, the larger the size of the chip, the bigger the field of view (FOV). The FOV for an optical system consisting of a telescope and a camera is given by the equation (FOV ~ 57.3 L /F) where L is the length of one side or diagonal of the sensor chip in mm, F is the telescope focal length in mm and FOV is in degrees. So the larger the sensor chip the larger the FOV. For instance, let's take the case of an 8" SCT with a Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer to achieve a focal length of 1260 mm (2000 mm x 0.63). Assume we are using a camera with a 6.46mm diagonal Sony IMX224 chip. The FOV will be 0.29 degrees along the diagonal, slightly larger along the long axis and slightly smaller along the shorter axis of the chip. Now, if instead we use a camera with the Sony IMX294 chip with a diagonal of 23.2 mm the FOV will be 1.05 degrees along the diagonal which is 3.6 times larger. 84 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA
The larger chip size has several advantages. First, it allows us to capture much larger DSOs in a single image frame. Something like the Triffid Nebula is too large to fit into a single frame with the much smaller chip of the IMX224, but fits nicely into the chip of the IMX294. In addition to enabling larger DSOs to fit inside a single frame, the larger FOV can make it much easier to align the telescope and to find objects. In effect, the sensor diagonal acts like the focal length of an EP in determining the FOV. So, the IMX224 with a diagonal of ~6.5mm gives a similar FOV as a 6 to 7 mm focal length EP, while the IMX294 gives a similar FOV as a 23 mm focal length EP. On the other hand, the smaller sensor, like the smaller focal length EP, provides higher magnification of an object compared to the larger sensor. When comparing the image frames for M61 between the IMX224 and IMX294 sensors, obviously the image will appear larger on the computer screen with the IMX224 sensor and will fill the frame while the image appears much smaller with the IMX294 sensor. Now there is a trick here. The IMX224 has only 1.2MP while the IMX294 with 11.3MP has nearly 10X the number of pixels. The image from the IMX294 can be zoomed in or viewed on a much larger screen like a 60" TV without producing a blocky or pixelated image whereas the IMX224 image doesn't have enough pixels to do that. The IMX224 image will support a 720p video display format which is just below full HD or 1080p, while the IMX294 has more resolution than a 4k video display. Having said that, the IMX224 resolution is more than 2X that of the analog video cameras with 0.4MP which were the only options for EAA up until ~ 2015. Another thing to be aware of as the sensor size increases, vignetting of the image will become more obvious. As the light travels through the optical path any narrowing of that path due to baffling inside the tube, the diameter of the opening at the back end of the telescope, the focuser, any adapters, focal CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 85 Image 3 - Quantum Efficiency for ZWO ASI294MC from ZWO website.
CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA reducers, filters, etc. can block some of that light toward the outer radius of the FOV. This will show up as a halo toward the outer edge of the image. This is typically not a problem in the very small sensors less than 10mm in diagonal. Focal reducers will make vignetting worse as they push the light cone further back from the exit of the telescope. Vignetting may or may not be an issue for the individual viewer depending upon how severe. This is why APS-C (28mm) and full frame cameras (43mm) can be challenging. However, vignetting can be corrected with flat frames applied to the image on the fly with live stacking software. It should also be noted that as the sensor size increases, so does the number of pixels which means that file sizes get larger fast. This directly impacts the amount of computer storage necessary if one wants to save images. It also can impact the ability to stack images live in software if the computer used doesn't have sufficient CPU capability. Read Noise The biggest driver of the move from CCD cameras to CMOS cameras after cost has been the fact that CMOS cameras have amazingly low read noise. What is read noise? It is the random noise due to the uncertainty in counting the number of electrons created in each pixel by the photons striking that pixel. Read noise is independent of the signal, or amount of photons collected, 86 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY Image 4 - A 16bit sensor has a finer graduation grey scale compared to 14bit. Source ZWO.
Image 5 - With 2x2 binning of a 4 micron pixel the pixel size becomes 8 microns and the image scale increases. so it is independent of the exposure. This noise is introduced into the image data when the captured image frame is downloaded from the sensor to the output device, display and computer hard drive. Read noise for CCD cameras is typically greater than 5electrons (5e). Cameras with the Sony ICX825 CCD sensor have a read noise of 6e while cameras using the Sony ICX825 CCD sensor have a much lower read noise of 3.5e and cameras using the Kodak KAF−8300 CCD sensor have as much as 9.3e of read noise. In contrast, CMOS cameras can have a read noise less than 2e depending upon the gain setting used. At this level, the read noise is less than the other sources of noise which impact the image and can effectively be ignored for EAA. The read noise is a strong function of gain used as shown in the plot from QHY in Image 1. A lower read noise means that there is no penalty for taking many short exposures and stacking them live rather than taking a single long exposure. In fact, commensurate with the introduction of these low read noise CMOS cameras, live stacking software like SharpCap became widely available. Whereas in the bygone days of analog cameras with CCD sensors we used exposures of 30 seconds to several minutes to bring out detail in our images, EAA has moved more toward stacking many very short exposures, 5 and 10sec, to achieve the same total exposure time now that live stacking software is readily available. The ability to use many short exposures has had multiple effects on EAA. First, instead of waiting a minute to see something on our display, we begin to see the faint evidence of a DSO in very short order. This gets better in real time right before our eyes with more detail and less noise with each additional frame added to the stack. Second, the use of short frames means that a less than perfect polar alignment of our equatorial (EQ) mount does not cause objectionable star trailing since the exposure is not long enough to show the effect of an imperfect alignment. Third, with very short exposures we can now use Alt-Azimuth mounts for EAA which are simply out of the question for traditional astrophotograpy. Alt-Az mounts have the advantages of being much easier to set up since a polar alignment is not needed. Also, Alt-Az mounts tend to be less expensive than EQ mounts. Fourth, shorter exposures can also help to avoid saturation of bright stars in the FOV, thus improving the dynamic range of the viewed image. So, low read noise can be a big plus for EAA enabling short exposure live stacking, the use of less expensive mounts, and a simpler setup routine. Fortunately, most CMOS cameras have exceptionally low read noise and one can concentrate on other features in deciding which camera is best suited to their EAA needs. Cooling Yet another choice one must make in selecting a camera is whether to purchase a cooled or uncooled camera. Many models are available with Peltier or Thermo Electric (TEC) cooling of the camera sensor to minimize thermal noise. Thermal noise is the result of heat buildup inside the camera from the camera electronics and from the background air temperature. Thermal nose results in a dark current within the CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 87
88 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA camera sensor which shows up as random noise in the background of an image frame. Thermal noise is fairly predictable at a given temperature and can be controlled with a well-regulated TEC which typically allow for temperatures to be maintained ~ -35 to -40 degC below ambient. Cooling is more important for long exposures as the heat build up in the camera during these long exposures is greater than in short exposures. Therefore, if the strategy is to stack many very short exposures, say 10sec or shorter, the advantage of TEC cooling may not be worth the added cost and complexity. Also, the background noise from the dark current can also be very effectively removed by using dark frame subtraction. A set of dark frames, typically 16, can be collected and averaged at the exposure planned for live viewing. The dark frame average is used as a master dark frame which can then be subtracted on the fly with live stacking software like SharpCap to remove the dark noise from each frame. For this to be effective, the dark frames must be collected at the same exposure time, gain and temperature as the frames during live viewing. Also, because ambient temperatures can drop significantly during the night, new dark frames may need to be taken and a new master dark frame used throughout the night. On the other hand, with TEC cooling, a library of dark frames can be made ahead of time at different exposure times and temperature offsets from ambient to be used as needed throughout the night. This library can be made during the day or during a cloudy night so that no time is wasted on nights with good visibility. Several things need to be considered when using a camera with a TEC. First, the lower temperature at the sensor can result in dew buildup on the sensor and on the camera's glass window. Many cooled cameras come with a sealed chamber to minimize water vapor causing dew build up inside the chamber. This still leaves the outside glass window of the chamber exposed to dew buildup which is why many cooled cameras now come with a dew heater strip surrounding the chamber window (See Image 2). Second, while the camera itself requires very little power, typically less than 2.5W which can be supplied via the USB connection to the camera, cooling requires an additional 12V power supply capable of supplying ~20 - 35W and an additional cable to the camera. Consideration for extra battery capacity when visiting a remote dark site is also necessary with a cooled camera. QE, Full Well Depth, Bit Depth, Frame Rate With so many different specifications for the sensors inside astronomy cameras, there is not single ideal camera. Most likely, once you determine the price range you plan to spend, whether to go with color or mono, cooled or uncooled and the chip size that will work best for your application, the remaining specs will already be determined. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to go over those additional specifications as they will impact the performance of the camera. Quantum efficiency (QE) is a measure of how well the pixels in the sensor convert an incoming photon into electrons (see example in Image 3). The silicon which makes up the sensor is responsive to light over a range of wavelengths centered in the visible but extending into the near infrared and ultraviolet, typically from ~300nm to 1,000nm. The QE varies with wavelength and is usually expressed in a graph with separate curves for red, green and blue light. Quantum effiImage 6 - Key characteristics of the some commonly used sensors in EAA cameras.
90 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA ciencies can vary quite a bit with values ranging from 50% to 84% for typical EAA cameras. The lower the QE the longer the exposure needed to collect the same amount of photons compared to a higher QE. Another important attribute of the sensor inside a camera is called the full well capacity. This is a measure of the maximum number of photons that a pixel can collect before it is full of electrons and cannot detect any additional photons. The full well capacity is proportional to the size of the pixels with larger pixels capable of capturing more photons before they become full. Full well capacities can vary significantly from camera to camera with a range of about 15K electrons for the Sony IMX183 sensor with a 2.4 micron pixel size to 64K electrons for the Sony IMX294 sensor with a 4.63 micron pixel size. Full well capacity will determine the range between the brightest object and the dimmest object. If the full well capacity is small, bright stars will saturate unless the exposure is shortened which will reduce the intensity of the dimmer objects in the FOV. All other things considered, a higher full well capacity is preferred. It should be noted that the stated full well capacity is measured with zero gain. Gain is equivalent to the ISO setting on a DSLR camera which multiplies the number of electrons captured at each pixel thereby increasing the camera's sensitivity by allowing resolution of smaller differences in the number of electrons captured. Gain values can be anywhere from 0 to ~450 depending upon how the camera manufacturer sets it up. The trade-off with higher gain is reduced dynamic range. Dynamic range is the ratio of the largest signal (brightest object) to the smallest signal (dimmest object or background sky). A large dynamic range is desired to show the full range of objects without washing out the brightest ones in the image. For instance, a large dynamic range is needed to capture the dark dust lanes without blowing out the core of a galaxy. As gain is increased the full well capacity of the camera is reduced because the multiplication factor uses up more well capacity. This, in turn, causes the dynamic range to decrease. So, gain helps with sensitivity but hurts with dynamic range. Yet another specification that you will find with each camera is bit depth. Typical cameras used for EAA have bit depths of 12 or 14 but some of the higher priced cameras are 16 bit. What is bit depth? After the camera captures an image frame an analog to digital converter (ADC) converts the analog voltage associated with the number of electrons in a pixel into an integer or digital value. With a 12 bit device, 2^12 or 4096 discrete values are possible for each pixel. At 12 bits, the camera uses a bit value of 0 for no voltage detected and 4096 for the maximum voltage detected. A 14 bit device has 4 times as many possible values so it also uses 0 for no voltage but can now use 16,384 bits for the maximum voltage detected providing a finer scale with which to better differentiate details within an image. A bit depth of 14 is most common among the current batch of CMOS cameras, but 16 bits is starting to show up in the latest high end CMOS cameras. A 16 bit device has 65,536 possible values. The more bits possible, the finer the resolution in the photon levels detected. All other things considered, a camera with a higher bit depth is desirable. Image 4 is a comparison from ZWO showing the increased grey scale resolution with more bits Cameras will also have a maximum frame rate specification which indicates how many full frame images can be downloaded from the camera per second. The download rate may be limited by external cabling, with USB3 supporting higher data rates than USB2. Frame rates are not super important for EAA since exposures are a few seconds or longer. Frame rates of 10 to 23 frames per second (FPS) are typical for cameras commonly used for DSOs. This is in contrast to planetary cameras with frame rates of 20 FPS to 170 FPS. Which is not to say that a camera used for DSOs cannot also be used for planetary imaging; just that it is not optimized in terms of pixel size and frame rate for planetary work. Another point to note, with binning the frame rate will increase since there are less individual pixels of data to transfer. USB Hubs, Internal Memory, Binning, etc. There are several other features to consider when choosing a camera. Most CMOS cameras today allow binning of the sensor pixels which simply merges the signal from adjacent pixels into one larger pixel. Typically binning is available in 2x2, 3x3 and even up to 4x4. Binning 2x2 means that four adjacent pixels are combined into one, which effectively increases the pixel size by a factor of 4, improves the sensitivity by a factor of 4, but reduces the resolution by a factor of 2. Binning 3x3 combines a 3 pixel square of 9 pixels into one and 4x4 binning combines a 4 pixel square of 16 into one very large pixel. Because of the increased sensitivity, binning is helpful when searching for objects, doing an alignment and framing targets as it
92 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA shortens the time needed to get a recognizable image. How does binning with a OSC camera keep the color since the adjacent pixels have different (R, G, B) color filters? The answer is that the binning is done in software which allows the camera to deBayer the image before binning so as to preserve the color information. Now that we are discussing binning, we need to also visit the concept of image scale which is determined by the ratio of the sensor pixel size to the telescope focal length [Image Scale (arcsec/pixel) = 205 x Pixel Size (microns) / Focal Length (mm)]. Now, it is widely accepted that typical seeing limits observable detail to ~ 2 arcsec per pixel. On nights of better seeing an image scale less than 2 arcseconds per pixel is possible. Consider an 8" SCT at f/10 with a focal length of 2000 mm. Let's use 4 microns as an approximate size of a pixel in a typical EAA camera. This gives an image scale of 0.41 arcsec/pixel which is much smaller than the typical seeing which means that we are oversampling relative to the sky conditions. Now, what if we use a Hyperstar lens to achieve a focal ratio of f/2 so that the telescope focal length is now 400mm. In this case we are operating at ~2.1 arcsec/pixel which is perfect for typical seeing conditions. Take another example of an 8" Newtonian at f/3.9, or 780mm which gives an image scale of ~1.1arcsec/pixel. And last, consider a 127mm refractor at f/5 with a focal length of 635mm which leads to an image scale of ~1.3 arcsec/pixel. The point is that with the small size of CMOS sensors, with most telescope setups we will be oversampling relative to a 2arcsec/pixel seeing limit. There is no harm in this, but it does say that we can bin 2x2 and get the advantage of 4X the sensitivity without losing significant resolution in all but the best seeing conditions. With 2x2 binning of a 4 micron pixel, the pixel size becomes 8 microns and the image scale increases accordingly as shown in the table in Image 5. Because the image scale with typical CMOS pixel sizes is much smaller than 2arcsec/pixel, binning will not reduce the resolution unless the seeing conditions are sub 2arcsec/pixel or even sub 1arcsec/pixel. Another concept we should discuss is amp-glow. In the days when we used analog cameras with CCD sensor all cameras had to deal with amp-glow. Amp-glow appears as a bright region at an edge or corner of the image which is caused by IR radiation from the read out amplifier. These IR photons are picked up by the nearby pixels and show up as a background glow, hence the name amp-glow. Now, CMOS sensors have completely different circuitry but can still suffer the effects of glow from the other on board circuitry and this varies from camera to camera in intensity, number and shapes of glowing regions. Amp-glow can be handled with dark frame subtraction which, for EAA, means live stacking software must be used. Some cameras advertise amp-glow control which can virtually eliminate the effect without dark frame subtraction. An internal memory buffer is used to increase the readout speed thereby reducing the time the readout circuits are active. Several camera makers also have "Anti Amp-Glow" hardware and software which reduces the power in the CMOS circuitry thereby minimizing amp-glow but no real details are given about how they do this. Minimum and maximum exposures vary by camera but typically have a minimum of tens of micro seconds which is sufficient for bright planetary objects and maximums of 30 to 60 minutes which is much more than is needed for EAA. The very sensitive Sony ICX825 CCD has a very short maximum exposure of 120 seconds which is more than sufficient for most EAA applications but does limit the total time for live stacking to 2 minutes. Many dedicated astronomy cameras these days come in a cylindrical shaped body which are designed to have a small footprint. This is important when using the Hyperstar adapter on an SCT as it minimizes the amount of incoming light blocked by the camera. The bodies are typically ~3" or smaller in diameter. The ATIK Infinity is an exception as it has a rectangular body 70 x 113mm in dimensions. On the other hand, cooled camera bodies are 4" to 5" long which means that they will run into the base of some Alt-Az mounts like the Celestron Nexstar mounts. Camera Options for EAA Like mounts and telescopes, there are far too many cameras available for EAA to cover them all. We will concentrate on CMOS cameras with two exceptions for popular CCD cameras. Also, it is important to note that the manufacturers of the cameras typically use the same sensors from Sony and Panasonic so one can find very similar cameras. Image 6 is a table of the key characteristics of some of the most commonly used sensors in EAA cameras. The table is arranged from smallest to largest diagonal. Many of these sensors come in both a color and mono version, although color is much more commonly used for EAA to get the full ben-
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94 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA efit of real time viewing. The advantage of the mono sensor is its higher sensitivity, especially when used with narrow band filters to cut through local light pollution. The smallest sensor discussed is the IMX224 which was discussed earlier and can be found in the least expensive cameras. Most sensors have diagonals in the range of 16mm to 22mm which can result in obvious vignetting especially if significant focal reduction is used. Vignetting can be addressed with flat fields when using live stacking software or minimized with a telescope which has a large fully illuminated image circle. Vignetting is especially problematic when an APS-C format sensor like the IMX071 is used or a Full-Frame sensor like the IMX455. We will not discuss the Full-Frame format sensors and cameras here as they are much more suited to astrophotography even though certainly can be used for EAA. The values of the Read Noise given in the table are the minimums as Read Noise varies with the Gain used. Quantum Efficiency (QE) is not available for all sensors for some reason. Cameras are available for many of the sensors shown with TEC cooling. Also, all but a very few of the cameras come with a USB3.0 connection to the camera which provides faster download speeds compared to USB2.0. Camera bodies are typically cylindrical. TEC cooling requires a much larger camera body length which will not clear the base of an Alt-Az mount when pointing near the zenith unless it is one of the side mount Alt-Az telescopes. When choosing among cameras with the same sensor but from different manufacturers the following offers ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 2 $6.00 US AVALON INSTRUMENTS’ M-ZERO OBSERVATORY MOUNT THE MOUNT FOR US LAZY PEOPLE NARROWBAND FILTERS & FAST OPTICS • LIVESKIES.ORG COLLIMATION AND THE BLUG • HOWIE GLATTER’S LASER COLLIMATOR THE BAADER UFC (UNIVERSAL FILTER CHANGER) ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 3 $6.00 US THE RASPBERRY PI AND AMATEUR ASTRONOMY SERIOUS IMAGING WITH AN ACHROMATIC REFRACTOR DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTING A 28-INCH F/3.6 DOB AALCOR SYSTEM’S CYCLOPE SEEING MONITOR ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 4 $6.00 US I DESIGNED AND 3D-PRINTED A NEWTONIAN REFLECTOR TELESCOPE. THE VIEWS ARE AMAZING! UPDATE: ELECTRONIC FINDER FOR A DOBSONIANO RADIAN TRIAD & TRIAD ULTRA PERFORMANCE VS. F-RATIO THE APM 152MM F/7.9 ED-AP • EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC AR 102 ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 5 $6.00 US ASTRONOMICAL SPECTROSCOPY - A USER EXPERIENCE WITH THE SHELYAK ALPY HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY CONFIGURATION SKY-WATCHER QUATTRO 12-INCH IMAGING NEWT • ATM GO-TO ASTRO-BINO CHAIR ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 5 $6.00 US THE KNIGHTWARE SQM READER PRO 3 SOFTWARE AND UNIHEDRON SQM METER BAADER PLANETARIUM INSTALLS NEW TELESCOPES AND MOUNTS FOR THE HISTORIC RODEWISCH OBSERVATORY LITHIUM SOLAR GENERATORS FOR ASTRONOMY • MULTI-IMAGER SYSTEMS EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC 68° AND 82° EYEPIECES ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 7 $6.00 US CHECK OUT THESE NEW PRODUCTS! QUICK IMAGE ACQUISITION WITH VIDEO CAMERAS • BUILDING A LOW-COST “BUDGET OBSERVING STATION” THE BAADER UFC (UNIVERSAL FILTER CHANGER) • THE UNIFIED SOFTWARE THEORY: PRISM ADVANCED V10 ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 8 $6.00 US THE SKY-WATCHER USA HERITAGE 150 TABLETOP DOBSONIAN THE SKY-WATCHER USA HERITAGE 150 TABLETOP DOBSONIAN APM/LZOS 115MM F/7 APO • THE SOFTWARE BISQUE PARAMOUNT MYT ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 9 $6.00 US 51 SKY-WATCHER EVOGUIDE 50ED EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC 2" UHC FILTER • VIXEN SLV EYEPIECES IMAGING WITH THE BAADER MPCC MARK III • TPO 10-INCH IMAGING NEWT ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Volume 15 • Issue 10 $6.00 US ASIAIR PLUS MEASURING BACKYARD LIGHT POLLUTION • AN EYEPIECE SELECTION PRIMER EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC 92 DEGREE WATERPROOF ASTRONOMY EYEPIECES See Back Cover For Our Free Subscription Offers! ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY www.astronomytechnologytoday.com
The Nightskiesnetwork.ca was created in 2009 to allow individuals to broadcast the night sky live on the Internet using astronomical cameras connected to their telescopes. We are proud to announce the nightskiesnetwork.ca is now LiveSkies.org! The name better reflects the scope and scale of the service which features live views of deep-sky objects, the Moon, Sun broadcast by top amateur astronomers on every continent across the globe. Anyone can participate - from those with elite set-ups to beginner set-ups. You can participate as a guest to view any live stream or become a live broadcaster. It’s really about sharing the views and personal experiences available from global streaming technology available today. And the site now allows educational institutions such as universities, colleges, high, middle and elementary schools to broadcast private sessions for students and faculty. Astronomy clubs can also provide private club sessions for their members. There are now over 13,000 members and 300 broadcasters who are using the service. And the best part is its free! There is no charge to broadcast or just sit back and view the live video streams. To learn more, visit liveskies.org and join the live on-line star party! The Nightskiesnetwork.ca was created in 2009 to allow individuals to broadcast the night sky live on the Internet using astronomical cameras connected to their telescopes. We are proud to announce the nightskiesnetwork.ca is now LiveSkies.org! The name better reflects the scope and scale of the service which features live views of deep-sky objects, the Moon, and Sun broadcast by top amateur astronomers on every continent across the globe. Anyone can participate - from those with elite set-ups to beginner set-ups. You can participate as a guest to view any live stream or become a live broadcaster. It’s really about sharing the views and personal experiences made possible from global streaming technology available today. And the site now allows educational institutions such as universities, colleges, high, middle and elementary schools to broadcast private sessions for students and faculty. Astronomy clubs can also provide private club sessions for their members. There are now over 13,000 members and 300 broadcasters who are using the service. And the best part is its free! There is no charge to broadcast or just sit back and view the live video streams. To learn more, visit liveskies.org and join the live on-line star party!
96 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY CHOOSING A CAMERA FOR EEA some additional things to look for in an EEA camera. DDR Memory: Built in DDR memory comes in either 128MB or 256MB. Note that 1 MB is the same as 8Gb as some express the memory in Gb instead of MB. It takes 8 bits (b) to make 1 byte (B). This added memory prevents frames from being dropped when transferring the data from the camera to the computer due to the high pixel count of many cameras. It can have the added benefit of reducing amp-glow as will be discussed. USB Hub: Typically, cameras with cooling come with a 2 port USB2.0 Hub which can be used to connect two other devices such as a filter wheel, focuser or guide camera. This simplifies cabling and reduces the number of cables which must hang from the telescope to a computer or a USB Hub below. Anti-Amp Glow: In addition to DDR memory, some cameras have additional methods to combat amp-glow which may include software and additional hardware tricks. Anti-Dew: Cooled cameras will often cause water condensation on the sensor window which may even ice up completely bringing a viewing session to a grinding halt until the camera is warmed. All cameras come with a sealed window using a gasket to keep water vapor outside the sensor. Some manufacturers add a thin heater on the chamber window which keeps water from condensing on the window. Some offer a removable and re-chargeable silica gel pack to absorb any water vapor inside the sensor chamber which must be removed and baked from time to time to remain absorbent. Fan: A few of the lower cost cameras use a fan instead of a TEC for cooling which will not produce the same low temperature noise reduction as a TEC. Some cameras with TEC also have a fan to assist with heat dissipation. Software: Camera control and live stacking software has become very common for EAA since Robin Glover introduced SharpCap in 2010. SharpCap works natively with a number of cameras and will work with other cameras using an ASCOM driver. The free version of SharpCap has camera control and live stacking capability. Some camera manufacturers offer proprietary software that works with their individual cameras. While these may do live stacking and on the fly processing, SharpCap is arguably the most complete package, especially if one uses the subscription version which includes plate solving, polar alignment and many other useful functions which are not necessary for EAA but make the process of setting up, aligning, focusing, etc. much easier. But it can have a steep learning curve. Certainly camera manufacturers try to distinguish themselves from their competitors so there are other differences among them including the use of AR coatings on chamber windows, DDR3 vs DDR2 memory, global vs rolling shutters, etc. Check competing manufacturer's sites for these additional details. Summary Clearly there are many possibilities when it comes to cameras for EAA. With so many choices it can be challenging to decide which camera is best suited to ones' needs. A good approach may be the following. First decide your price range. When doing so, consider waiting to buy something with a much larger sensor than the IMX224 like the IMX183 sensor. While the IMX224 cameras are a great choice for someone on a tight budget, cameras like those with the IMX183 or even the IMX294 are a better choice for the long run if you can eventually work it into your budget by waiting. Or, pick up a higher end camera on the used market to move up in features right away. Cameras are pretty robust so there is not a great deal of risk to buy used. In that case it is a good idea to ask for a recent 60sec dark frame to make sure that the camera does not have too many hot pixels. Cooling is nice to have and essential for astrophotography, but for the short exposures used in EAA exposures cooling is not absolutely necessary. This will keep the cost down. If you are planning to use an Alt-Az mount with the telescope centered on the mount a cooled camera can make it impossible to view objects around 80 to 90 degrees in altitude. A sensor in the 15mm to 23mm range gives a good FOV for large objects without having to be too aggressive with focal reducers. Color cameras add a satisfying dimension to real time viewing which mono cameras cannot. When you do purchase a camera make sure that you have the necessary spacers to place the sensor at the correct distance from the back of the telescope to get an image without artifacts. Screw on spacers are better than slide on spacers since they will have less flex, but both will work.
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S E R I E S LOOKING BACK ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY TODAY Your Complete Guide to Astronomical Equipment Wayne’s article introducing the original POD was the cover article of our second issue way back in 2007. We are as impressed now as we were then on Wayne's unique journey into the astronomy products industry. POD A LABOR OF LOVE 2007 - Vol. 1 - Issue 2 98 Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY
SkyShed SkyShed POD A Labor of Love By Wayne Parker Astronomy TECHNOLOGY TODAY 99 Like many astronomers I was drawn to astronomy by sci-fi movies, TV programs, and books by authors like Clarke, Heinlein, Bradbury, and Asimov. Also, like many, I was drawn to music by bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other popular groups of my youth. They say that if you want to be happy, you should make your passion your life’s work. At around the age of 14 making music and searching the heavens solidified themselves as my life passions. Actually, those two and the pursuit of girls. I was 14 after all! Throughout my teenage years I divided my time between school, family, part time jobs, playing in local bands and setting up my little Celestron C5 scope every chance I got. I’d employed star hopping to the brightest sky objects, always pushing for that next magnitude darker object to show itself in my eyepiece. For the most part I observed alone. Most of my friends were not patient enough to stand around while I spent 20 minutes trying to locate a bright NGC object in the eyepiece. Especially on those frigid Canadian winter nights! After high school I continued in a local band which gained popularity, as I and the other members of the band worked our way through college and played gigs part time. As time passed and incomeincreased (a little) I upgraded my scope to an 8-inch SCT, then a 10-inch SCT, and added a couple of refractors and lots of gizmos and gears to help me spend less time looking for objects and moretime observing them. A couple of years after college I was still in that very same band gigging six nights a week. We were officially “discovered” and signed to a worldwide recording contract with EMI Records. We recorded our first album over 3 months in the mountains of Quebec. I decided to
81060 AAssttrroonnoommyyTTEECCHHNNOOLLOOGGYYTTOODDAAYY purchase a Tel Vue “Genesis”, so that I would always have a scope with me when traveling. When I think back to what I looked like walking through airports, I’m amazed I ever made it through security. Imagine long hair, pulled back into a tail, dark shades, black leather coat with LOTS of zippers, the silver metal belt, black denim jeans and leather boots, WITH a tripod strapped to my back and my Genesis packed in well traveled black and chrome case. Put it this way: I think it would take me a little longer to get through airport security today than it did back then. Our album debuted and before long we were lucky enough to have few hits songs around the world.This meant lots of traveling and opportunities to turn people on to astronomy. I used every chance I got to set my little scope up and invite people to take a gander. Sometimes is was on the roof of a Paris hotel while on tour with Tina Turner, or next to our tour bus, behind a stadium, in the U.S. heartland, while touring with the band Journey. I continued to enjoy that little scope on the road, and due to touring schedules and more album recording, I got a chance to gets weeks and even months to settle in for many observing sessions at home without having to travel much at all. As usually happens when a new decade dawns, musical styles changed and my band's time had now come and gone. Personally I was quite happy because I now had a lot more time to do astronomy and was tired after 17 years of playing music in smoky bars and forever traveling, while back at home, my friends planted roots and raised families. Since I had tucked away some money, I figured I'd take couple of years off to decide what I wanted to do for the next phase of my life. I kept trying to think of a way that I could spend as much time as possible involved with astronomy, but as you know there's not a long list of things you can do full time in astronomy and still eat well. That is, unless you're a professional astronomer who made the decision to become one way back in high school, a time when I was busy playing guitar, not studying math. I really enjoyed that time off and got in more astronomy than ever before. I remember getting four great Mars observing nights in a row, one of the few times I left my scopes setup out side due to a dry hot summer. I'll never forget getting time to spend observing one Messier cluster so long that I perceived the “tunnel effect”, where for just a fleeting moment, I got the slightest sense of the distance and scale of the object I was observing. The best thing that happened in that time was that I met my wife Lorelei. I was visiting a friend one day and noticed an astro magazine on the coffeetable. When I asked my friend if it was his, he said that it was his roommate’s. A female roommate. SKYSHED POD Left – Wayne, far left, with the band in 1987. Below – Wayne in the SkyShed POD era, far right, with the band members. We thought you may be interested in a little more information about Wayne’s Rock and Roll past. His band, originally called Tokyo, was discovered in the summer of 1984 and officially became Glass Tiger upon signing a major recording contract. Their first album, “The Thin Red Line”, was released in 1986 setting a record for being the fastest selling debut recording in Canadian history, going gold within weeks of its release. The album received four Platinum records in Canada and went Gold in the United States. The song “Don’t Forget Me (When I'm Gone)” reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard chartsfollowed by “Someday” which reached #5. In addition to garnering several Juno awards, Canada’s top music honor, the band also received a Grammy nomination for best new artist. The band continued its success with other albums and has become one of the most successful Canadian groups of all time. They have recorded songs with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart and toured with some of the most popular bands of the day. In 2005 they released a retrospective DVD containing all of the original hit videos the band released in the 1980's and 90’s along with 2 new videos and songs recorded especially for the DVD compilation. For more information about the band go to www.glasstiger.ca.