instruction Manual Orion® StarShoot™ Pro Deep Space Color Imager #52084 Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 Customer Support (800) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope.com OrionTelescopes.com Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076 IN 336 Rev.
Welcome to the exciting world of astro-imaging. Your new StarShoot™ Pro Deep Space Color Imaging camera is capable of capturing impressive celestial objects like galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae, as well as the planets, Moon, and the Sun (with an optional solar filter). You can showcase spectacular images on your computer, share them on the internet, or print them. The camera’s large 6 mega-pixel array enables full-sized 8"x10" prints, suitable for publishing.
Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Color Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Recommended Processing Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Note on File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Batch Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 4.
Figure 1. To use the StarShoot Pro, a telescope, mount, and computer are required. An autoguiding system is recommended. 1. Getting Started Parts List • StarShoot Pro Deep Space Color Imager • 10' USB cable • 12' DC power cable with lighter plug • CD-ROM • Hard carrying case System Requirements (refer to Figure 1) Telescope The StarShoot Pro can be used with most telescopes compatible with 2" format eyepieces. The camera is simply inserted into a focuser in the same way as a standard eyepiece (Figure 2a).
Securing thumbscrew 2a Telescope T-threads 2b Figure 2a. The StarShoot Pro fits into a 2" focuser, just like a standard 2" eyepiece. Firmly tighten the thumbscrew that secures the StarShoot Pro in the focuser. Figure 2b. If your telescope has T-threads, remove the nosepiece from the StarShoot Pro and thread the camera directly onto the telescope. This provides the most secure connection. If your telescope has T-threads for direct camera attachment, a more secure connection can be made.
Cooling fan Power input jack USB cable Figure 3. The 12VDC power cable and USB cable turn the camera on when plugged in. Mount Deep sky imaging with the StarShoot Pro requires an equatorial mount with a right ascension (R.A.) motor drive. The goal for your mount is to seamlessly track the apparent movement of the sky as the Earth rotates. The tracking must be very accurate, or the object you want to image will drift and blur across the camera’s field of view while the exposure is taken.
Figure 4. The Launcher provides an easy menu for software installation. • Video Display: 1024 X 768 or higher, 16-bit color or higher • Mouse • Internet Explorer 4 or higher required to display on-line help • High-speed USB 2.0 port Power The StarShoot Pro requires 12 volts DC (12VDC) with approximately 1 ampere of current. Power to the entire camera, including the thermo-electric cooler (TEC), and fan is supplied by the included power cable when plugged into a 12VDC power source (Figure 3).
5a 5b Figure 5a. When initially connecting the StarShoot Pro to a Windows XP computer, the Found New Hardware Wizard will appear and guide you through driver installation. Figure 5b. When initially connecting the StarShoot Pro to a Windows Vista computer, the Found New Hardware window will appear and guide you through driver installation. 2. Click Install. 3. The InstallShield Wizard will start. Click Next. 4. Read the Maxim DL License Agreement.
Figure 6. The Camera Control Window automatically appears when the StarShoot Pro is connected to the computer and the Maxim DL Essentials program is started. Note: The StarShoot Pro will not work with USB 1.1. Your computer must have a high-speed USB 2.0 port available. 4. Select No, not this time when Windows asks to automatically search for drivers online and click Next. 5. Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) and click Next. 6. Select Search removable media (floppy, CD-ROM...).
7. A Windows Security window will appear and mention that “Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software”. Choose Install this driver software anyway. 8. When the window appears telling you “The software for this device has been successfully installed”, click Close. This completes the driver installation process. 9. Start MaxIm DL Essentials. The camera should be automatically recognized, and the Camera Control Window (Figure 6) will appear.
Figure 7. Because the StarShoot Pro is sensitive to light, an aperture mask is needed on the telescope for any imaging during daylight. For a refractor, the hole should be centered on the aperture mask. For a reflector, the hole should be off to one side of the aperture mask. 4. Open Maxim DL Essentials by clicking on the icon installed on your computer’s desktop. Once open, Essentials should automatically connect to your camera and display the Camera Control Window. 5.
Figure 8. The settings in the Screen Stretch Window greatly determine how an image will appear on your computer screen. screen, you may need to stop-down the aperture of your telescope further. Try making another aperture mask with a diameter of only 1⁄4". 10. Turn the telescope’s focus knob so the focuser drawtube moves slowly inward. The drawtube needs to go approximately 18mm inward from where the eyepiece focuses (for most eyepieces).
Number of pixels at brightness level Range of brightness levels Figure 9. A histogram is a visual representation of the range and levels of brightness in an image. Screen Stretch Window The function of the Screen Stretch Window (Figure 8) is to properly map the image brightness levels captured by the camera into corresponding image brightness levels on the computer screen.
of the mouse. To do this, hold down the Shift key, then left-click and drag the mouse on the image. You’ll find this feature to be a great convenience when fine adjusting the screen stretch to get an image to look its best. Instead of using the Screen Stretch Window, it is faster to use the Quick Stretch facility. This allows you to modify the image appearance instantly with small up/down and left/right movements of the mouse.
Figure 10. Draw a small box around the star to focus on with your mouse. The next exposure will download a “subframe”, using only the small area you selected which greatly decreases the download time. Focusing Focusing the CCD camera is one of the most critical parts of imaging. It can be challenging, but MaxIm DL Essentials has some helpful features which will assist you when focusing your StarShoot Pro. Before focusing, make sure your mount is polar aligned and tracking.
Figure 11.The FWHM and Max Pixel in the Camera Control Window help determine the best focus. 8. In the Camera Control Window, in the box below the Mode box, select Focus. Click Expose. The camera will only download the area you previously selected, which makes each image download significantly faster than the whole frame. Note: If the StarShoot Pro is grossly out of focus, no object will appear in the image, not even a blur.
Figure 12. Click Reset in the Subframe box after you have achieved focus. Caution: Once you have achieved focus, be sure to click the Reset button at the bottom of the camera control window, otherwise the camera will crop all your images into a small square! Imaging Deep Sky Objects Capturing impressive images of deep sky objects, such as galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters, require long exposures.
5. Select Single in the box under the Mode box and take a 10-20 Second exposure of the deep sky object to ensure it is centered well in your camera. Adjust the camera orientation if needed, keeping in mind that you may have to refocus the camera after making the adjustment. Reposition the telescope if needed to center the deep sky object. 6. Select AutoSave in the box under the Mode box in the Camera Control Window.
Figure 13. A dark frame contains the background noise. The same background noise appears in your “light” images. Dark frames isolate the noise so it can later be subtracted from your “light” images. 3. Choose Autosave in the box beneath the Mode box. 4. Set the number of dark frames you would like the camera to take under Autosave (3 to 10 will generally suffice, as these will be averaged together) 5.
Figure 14a. Larger format CCD cameras like the StarShoot Pro reveal vignetting through most telescopes. Vignetting occurs when the edge of the image plane has less illumination than the center. Figure 14b. Dust or other particles on the camera’s optical window can show up as distracting dark shapes in your images. Vignetting Vignetting (Figure 14a) in a telescope reveals edge-darkening in the astroimage.
4. Select Single in the box beneath Mode. 5. Set the Seconds to 0.1 for now and click Expose. You want the Max Pixel to read somewhere around 20000. Adjust the exposure time as needed until the Max Pixel is close to 20000. 6. Select Autosave (5-10 images) in the box beneath Mode. 7. Choose a file name to save your flat fields. You should include “flat” in the file name to easily find it later, e.g. “OrionNebulaFlat”. The flat fields also need dark frames. 8.
Figure 15. Use the Setup Calibration window to select the dark frames and flat fields you want to calibrate from your “light” images. 3. Click Add under the Dark Frames box in the Setup Calibration window (Figure 15) and select the file folder location for the dark frames taken. Select the dark frames and click Open. The selected dark frames will now appear in the pop-up window. 4. Click OK. The dark frames have now been averaged and stored into memory.
This process can be automated for all of your light images, see “Batch Processing”. Flat Field Calibration Calibrating your flat field images is done in the same way as calibrating your dark frames, but you also need to subtract dark frames for your flat field images. To flat field calibrate: 1. Select Setup Calibrate in the Process menu. 2. Click Add under the FlatField Frames box in the Setup Calibration window and select the file folder location for the flat field images taken.
Figure 17a. Before your images are combined, an individual deep space image will have more noise and less detail. Figure 17b. Combining multiple deep space images greatly increases the detail in the resulting combined image Combining Deep Sky Images Each individual deep sky image is faint and has a noticeable amount of noise. Combining the individual deep sky images eliminates the noise and enhances the detail in the deep sky object by improving the signal to noise ratio.
Figure 18. The Combine Images window allows “stacking” of individual images into one high-quality resultant image. Note: In addition to Average mentioned above, 3 other different combining methods can be chosen: Sum, Median, and Sigma-Clip. To learn more about these combine methods, see “Image Processing – Combine Methods”. The program automatically moves to the next image. 6 Center the crosshairs on the same star in this new image, and left-click again.
Set the Screen Stretch Window to Medium (or otherwise manually adjust for best image appearance), and use Save under the File menu to save your image. You can now perform any wanted imaging processing. Combine Methods We previously mentioned in “Imaging Deep Sky Objects” that Average is one of the methods to combine your images. There are three other methods that will achieve slightly different results: Sum, Median, and Sigma-Clip.
Figure 19. The Color Balance command allows weighting of each color plane to improve the overall color appearance of an image. the amount of blurring applied to the image. Increasing the radius increases the amount of blur applied. For best results, turn on the Auto Full Screen preview button, and adjust the settings. This allows you to rapidly adjust the settings until you are satisfied with the results. Then, click OK to actually apply the filter settings to the image.
Figure 20. The Stretch command modifies the data contained within the image in order to improve contrast and brightness. necessary to equalize the image background in all three color planes. The Reset button resets the background level subtraction to zero on all planes. Scaling adjustment (entered as a percentage) allows you to compensate for transmittance differences between the filters used to acquire the three color planes. Values of 100% result in no change.
There are three elements which must be set: the Permanent Stretch Type, the Input Range, and the Output Range. You can use the Preview Image to see how changing these parameters will affect the resultant image (or click the Full Screen button to see the changes applied to your actual image). You can also open the Screen Stretch Window to see how changing these parameters change the histogram.
beginning and stack individual images again! Note on File Format When saving images (using Save or Save As in the File menu), you have a choice of file formats. The default produces .fit files, but .tif, .jpg, .png, and .bmp file formats can also be selected. Having a choice of output file formats is useful, especially if images will be exported to other software programs for additional image processing (like Adobe Photoshop, for instance). Figure 21.
1. Select the image file you want to process from your computer using the Select Files button. Use CTRL-click to select individual files, and SHIFTclick to select a range of files. You can see the path for the selected files by turning on the Show Path check box. Or you can select images already open in MaxIm DL Essentials Edition by clicking the Select Images button. The window that pops-up will indicate all the images currently open. 2.
Figure 22. The Guide tab in the Camera Control Window is where the StarShoot Pro’s autoguider functions can be accessed. Figure 23. The autoguider Settings window is where the Autoguider Output is defined. superior due to the elimination of extra readout noise and the residual blurring caused in realigning the images. When taking long exposures with astronomical telescopes, motorized tracking is required to compensate for the Earth’s rotation.
can be very tiresome and tedious, however, especially if taking many long exposures throughout the night. The StarShoot Pro can be used as an “autoguider” to take the place of the observer so that no manual guiding corrections are needed during long exposure imaging.
7. The ASCOM Telescope Chooser (Figure 24) will appear. Select your telescope model from the provided choices. If your model does not appear, it is not supported by the ASCOM platform. 8. After you have selected your telescope model, click the Properties button. 9. In the window that pops-up, choose your specific Scope Type and desired Serial Port where the computer will send commands to the mount. Click OK when done. Figure 24.
Autoguider Calibration In order to properly control the mount, you must calibrate the system. The exact orientation of the StarShoot Pro, the focal length of the guide telescope optics, and the speed of the motor drive all affect the calibration. To perform autoguider calibration: 1. Switch to the Guide tab. 2. Set the X and Y Aggr (aggressiveness) to 8 to start with. Set the Exposure to 1.0 second. Under Guide Star, make sure the Watch box is checked.
telescope does not move, check the Settings. Remember, you have to set up a method for sending the autoguider commands to the telescope! 11. The star should move in an L shape. If it does not move enough, a warning message will appear. The recorded positions will be displayed in the scrolling log, along with any error messages. Note: If the star does not move far enough, or moves too far (i.e.
• On most telescopes, the Right Ascension drive likes to have some load pushing against sidereal tracking. If the mount is balanced such that it is pulling the mount forwards slightly, the gear teeth may bounce back and forth resulting in terrible guiding that cannot be corrected by an autoguider. Be sure to always balance the telescope such that it “lifting the weight” rather than “allowing it to fall”; i.e. heavier on the East side.
View Menu Zoom – Increases or decreases level of image magnification on computer screen. When you zoom in too much, you will start to see the squares of individual pixels. When zoomed in, you can use Quick Pan; simply hold down the Ctrl key, then left-click and drag the mouse on the image. Night Vision – Toggles Night Vision mode. The red background helps preserve your night vision.
Arrange Icons – Image windows can be minimized, at which point they become small bars (icons). If these have become scattered about the main application window, the Arrange Icons command will stack them neatly at the bottom of the window. Help Menu Help Topics – Click on this if you have any questions. This is an extensive resource, and should be consulted often. Under the Index tab, type in “Help Topics” and press Enter on your keyboard.
5. If the star drifts north, the telescope mount is pointing too far west. If the star drifts south, the telescope mount is pointing too far east. Determine which way the star drifted and make the appropriate correction to the azimuth position of the mount. Rotate the entire mount (and tripod) slightly east or west as needed or use the azimuth adjustment knobs (if your mount has them) to make fine adjustments to the mount’s position. 6.
objects, such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Pleadies star cluster. Focal reducers will usually thread onto the nosepiece of the StarShoot Pro. Barlow lenses increase the focal length of your telescope, which makes the camera’s field of view narrower (increases camera magnification). This is useful for planetary imaging. Keep in mind that when the focal length is doubled, the image will become four times dimmer, so a longer exposure may be necessary.
7. Specifications CCD Sensor: Sony® SuperHAD™ ICX413AQ Color Sensor format: 1.8" Pixel array: 3032x2016 (6,112,512 total) Pixel size: 7.8µm x 7.8µm Exposure range: 0.002 seconds to 9.3 hours A/D conversion: 16 bit Binning optional 2x2 Thermoelectric cooling: 30°C (54° F) below ambient temperature, sealed dry air chamber to prevent CCD icing Operating Power Range: 8VDC to 13.8VDC Camera current draw: Approximately 1A (at 12VDC) USB connection: 2.
Connect the equipment into an output on a circuit different from that to which the receiver in connected. Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help. A shielded cable must be used when connecting a peripheral to the serial ports. Appendix A. Troubleshooting Camera is not recognized when plugged into the computer’s USB port or there is no USB chime with a “Found New Hardware Wizard”. Make sure your computer has a high-speed USB 2.0 port available.
25. 26. Figure 25. Readout artifacts similar to the ones shown here can occur if the camera readout speed is set too fast for your computer. Figure 26. Select the fastest possible readout speed (between 1 and 8) that downloads an image without any artifacts. The “Found New Hardware Wizard” appears again when the camera is plugged into a different USB port for the first time. This is normal. Most USB controllers behave this way.
Check your USB connection for anything that could potentially introduce interference. Large power supplies or even a cellular phone near the camera or USB cable could interfere with the data as it is uploaded from the camera to the computer. If you are using a USB extension cable, keep the total length between the camera and computer to 20’ or less. The images look very noisy overall. Take a 15 second dark frame and inspect the image data. Position the mouse cursor over a dark part of the image.
Angular Field of View 208.2' X 135.9' 166.6' X 108.7' Telescope Focal Length 400mm 500mm Image Scale of the Moon Image Scale of M42 For your convenience, refer to the list of common telescope focal lengths and their corresponding fields of view provided by the StarShoot Pro. The angular field of view is shown in arc-minutes. The image scale shows the relative size of two reference objects; the Moon and the Orion Nebula. Appendix B.
138.8’ X 90.6’ 111’ X 72.5’ 92.5’ X 60.
Angular Field of View 83.3’ X 54.4’ 66.6’ X 43.5’ 46.3’ X 30.
41’ X 26.8’ 32.8’ X 21.4’ 29.7’ X 19.
Angular Field of View 27.8’ X 18.1 21.3’ X 13.
3. Take a dark frame right before or after you capture the deep space object. 2. Acquire and center the deep sky object you want to image. Autosave as many images as you would like (5 or more images is recommended to later combine). 1. Focus on a moderately bright star at least 30º (or more above the horizon). Image Capture Action Camera Control Window � Expose Cover telescope objective.
2. Convert raw to color 1. Calibrate darks and flats Image Processing You do not have to take your flat fields before you start imaging. They can be taken before or after your astro-images during the day, or any time you have a suitable light source. Find the exposure which creates a Max Pixel of about 20000. 4. Take a flat field image by pointing the telescope at a uniform and featureless light source, like the sky at dawn or a white sheet of paper.
Various processing commands are found in the Process menu. File � Save As, File Filter � FITS Images, Size Format � IEEE Float � Save 5. Export and save in fits format to keep all of the image data. Combine Images window, Output � Average � OK Use the mouse cursor to select the alignment star(s) in each image Combine Images window, Align Mode � Manual 1 star – shift only/Manual 2 stars Process � Combine � Select all of the open images you want to combine � OK 4.
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One-Year Limited Warranty This Orion StarShoot Pro is warranted against defects in materials or workmanship for a period of one year from the date of purchase. This warranty is for the benefit of the original retail purchaser only. During this warranty period Orion Telescopes & Binoculars will repair or replace, at Orion’s option, any warranted instrument that proves to be defective, provided it is returned postage paid to: Orion Warranty Repair, 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville, CA 95076.
