Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Starlight Xpress Ltd SXV-H9C ExView‘Megapixel’USB One-Shot Colour CCD camera User manual Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD camera. We hope that you will be very satisfied with the results. The SXV-H9C is an advanced, very high-resolution cooled CCD camera, especially designed for ‘One-Shot’ colour astronomical imaging. It is a second generation version of the very popular HX916 and incorporates many substantial improvements and extra features.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 The USB 2 connection offers a download speed increase of about 3x that of the original USB 1.1 interface supplied with the HX916. The full-frame download time is approximately 3.7 seconds and binned 4x4 downloads take only 0.5 seconds, so finding and centring are very quick and easy in this mode. If you have only a USB 1.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 expansion slot. Almost all machines manufactured after 1996 provide a pair of USB 1.1 sockets on the rear panel and either of these may be used if USB 1.1 is satisfactory. Please note that it may be necessary to enable your USB system in the computer BIOS (the SETUP menu which can usually be accessed at start-up). Many BIOS systems have the ability to disable ‘Plug and Play’ devices, such as the USB ports, so please make sure that these are enabled.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 At the end of this process, the USB interface will be installed as an ‘SXVIOClass device’ and the camera software will be able to access it. You can confirm that the installation is complete by checking the status of the USB devices in the Windows ‘Device Manager’ (see above). Start up the Windows ‘Control Panel’ and select ‘System’. Now click on the tab labelled ‘Device Manager’ and all of the system devices will be displayed in a list (see above).
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 The camera rear panel Connect up the power supply and switch it on.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 panel appear. If the USB connection is OK, a message box will inform you of the ‘Handle’ number for the SXVIO interface and various other version details etc. The main program window will now be seen. If you press the ‘Camera’ button at the top left, the program will warn you that the ‘Program Defaults’ have not been set, but pressing ‘OK’ will allow you to continue.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 If you use a normal lens, then stop it down to the smallest aperture number possible (usually F22) as this will minimise focus problems and keep the light level reasonable for daytime testing. The pin hole needs no such adjustments and will work immediately, although somewhat fuzzily. Point the camera + lens or pinhole towards a well-lit and clearly defined object some distance away.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 quality that it is possible to achieve. With our adaptor, most lenses come to infinity focus at about midway through their normal focus adjustment range. Various other exposure options are available, as can be seen in the picture above. For example, you can ‘Bin’ the download 2x2, or more, to achieve greater sensitivity and faster download, or enable ‘Continuous mode’ to see a steady stream of images.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Click on ‘Colour Synthesis’ in the main menu and you will see the synthesiser dialog. This includes various options for correcting the colour synthesis for variations in the lighting conditions, filters etc. Briefly, these items perform the following functions: 1) Daylight Image? – If an unfiltered lens is used, the infra-red content of the light will tend to produce a Green – Blue shift in the balance.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 For your first test images, I suggest that you turn on the Anti-Alias option and possibly the ‘Daylight Image’ option. Now press the ‘Create Image’ button. After a couple of seconds, your raw mono image will be replaced by a full colour version. There is every reason to expect that the image will be reasonably well colour balanced, but if it is not, you can adjust the colour in the ‘Set Colour Balance’ dialog box (Under ‘Colour’ in the main menu).
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 The colour balance controls seem complex, but are really quite easy to use. The most useful controls are the ‘Start’ and ‘Saturation Factor’ settings. Saturation factor will simply vary the colour intensity, without any alteration of the colour balance, but the ‘Start’ settings for each colour will alter the colour rendering of the dimmer parts of the image.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 that any pixels that are to the left of the ‘black’ pointer are set to black and any pixels to the right of the ‘white’ pointer are set to white. The pixels with values between the pointers are modified to fit the new brightness distribution. Try experimenting with the pointer positions until the image has a pleasing brightness and ‘crispness’.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Several astronomical stores sell par-focal eyepieces, but you can also make your own with a minimum of materials and an unwanted Kellner or Plossl ocular. Just measure a distance of 22mm from the field stop of the eyepiece (equivalent to the CCD to adaptor flange distance of the camera) and make an extension tube to set the field stop at this distance from the drawtube end.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 if the assembly is somewhat flexible. They also make it difficult to use a focal reducer with your camera, as the rapidly converging light cone from a reducer cannot reach all the way through the flip mirror unit to the CCD surface. If you are using one of the popular F3.3 compressors for deep sky imaging, you will NOT be able to include a flip mirror unit in front of your camera and using a par-focal eyepiece is your best option.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Achieving a good focus: Your starting point will depend on the focus aids, if any, which you are using. With the par-focal eyepiece, you should slip the eyepiece into the drawtube and focus visually on a moderately bright star (about 3rd magnitude). Now withdraw the eyepiece and carefully insert the camera nosepiece, until it is bottomed against the drawtube end, and then lock it in place.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 I will assume that you are now set up with a focused camera attached to a telescope with an operating sidereal drive. If so, you are now in a position to take a moderately long exposure of some interesting deep-sky astronomical object (I will deal with planets later). As most drives are not very accurate beyond a minute or two of exposure time, I suggest that you find a fairly bright object to image, such as M42, M13, M27 or M57.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 gradients of your CCD, so that these defects are largely removed when the dark frame is subtracted from the light frame. The SXV-H9C CCD is quite different from those used in other brands of camera and generates an extremely low level of dark noise.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 1) Make sure the ‘Auto Contrast Stretch’ is switched off and load your image into the SXV_H9C program. Select ‘Merge’ and then ‘Subtract Dark Frame’. Pick the appropriate dark frame and the software will then remove the dark signal from your image, leaving it somewhat darker and slightly smoother than before.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 followed by normalising the background to black with a normal stretch, is the usual procedure. 4) The image will now look quite impressive and I hope that you are pleased with your first efforts! Further small refinements are usually possible and you will become expert at judging the best way to achieve these as your experience increases. As a rough guide, the ‘Filters’ menu can be used to sharpen, soften or noise reduce the image.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 the star will also suffer from blurring, the eye can more easily gauge when the most compact blur has been achieved! You could begin by imaging lunar craters, or the planets, Jupiter, Saturn or Mars. The rapid variations of seeing which accompany planetary imaging will ruin the definition of about 95% of your images and so I recommend setting the camera to run in ‘Autosave’ mode.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Jupiter after an ‘Unsharp mask’ In general terms, the larger the image and the worse the seeing, then the wider the radius for best results. My Jupiter shots are usually about one third the height of the CCD frame and I find that the ‘radius 5, power 5’ values are good for most average seeing conditions.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 length lens will make more guide stars available in any given region of sky (See the picture below). To use the autoguider, first orient it so that the connector plug is roughly parallel to the declination axis of your mount. This is not absolutely essential, as the training routine will learn the angle of the head and compensate for it, but it is easier to understand the motion of the guide star if the guider frame is aligned with the RA and Dec axes.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 The autoguider installed on a 70mm refractor guide ‘scope in the author’s garden To use the autoguider, please proceed as follows: 1) Having started the SXV-H9C software, open the autoguider control panel by clicking on the autoguider menu button.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 The autoguider control panel with a guide star selected 2) Press the ‘Start’ button and a series of 1 second exposure guider images will begin to appear in the picture frame. If the images look too dim, use the ‘Stretch Image’ slider to increase its contrast and brightness until the noise begins to be visible.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 5 minutes) and press the ‘Autoguide next image’ button. The autoguider window will reappear and, after a few seconds, you should see error values appearing in the text windows at the top. The guide star will be fairly close to the green cross, although not necessarily accurately centred, and you should see the power/ guide LED on the rear of the camera brighten and change colour with each correction.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 controls that are provided by the SXV software. It is expected that many more functions will be added as the software is upgraded. ********************************************************************* Other features of the SXV-H9C hardware and software ‘Slew & Sum’ imaging: The SXV-H9C can be used in an automatic image-stacking mode, called ‘Slew & Sum’.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 a way that the errors are removed. Common flat field errors are due to dust motes on the camera window and vignetting effects in the optical system of the telescope. Dust motes act as ‘inverse pinholes’ and cast out-of-focus images of the telescope aperture onto the CCD chip, where they appear as shadow ‘do-nuts’. Most optical systems show some vignetting at the edges of the field, especially when focal reducers are used.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 flat field’ in the ‘Merge’ menu. The result should be an image with very few signs of the original artefacts and you can then process it in the normal way. ********************************************************************* The SXV-H9C accessory ports The SXV-H9C is provided with two ports for use with accessories. The Autoguider output port is a 6 way RJ11 socket, which is compatible with the standard autoguider input of most telescope mounts.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Camera maintenance: Very little maintenance is needed to keep the SXV-H9C in excellent operating order, however two problems, which are common to all CCD equipment, might show up on occasion. These are dust and condensation. Removing Dust: 1) Dust can be deposited on either the optical window (not a big problem to cure), or on the CCD faceplate (difficult to eliminate entirely).
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 7) Replace all the camera parts in reverse order and the job is done. Dealing with condensation: The SXV-H9C is designed to avoid condensation by minimising the volume of air trapped within the CCD cavity and by preventing moisture ingress. This normally works very well, but storage of the camera in a humid location can lead to the trapped air becoming moist by diffusion through the optical window mounting thread etc.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 Issue 1 June 2002 Back focal distance: The CCD is approximately 17.5mm from the barrel front. Camera size: 63mm diameter x 100mm long Dear Observer, Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD Imaging System. We are confident that you will gain much satisfaction from this equipment, but please read carefully the accompanying instruction manual to ensure that you achieve the best performance that is capable of providing.
Handbook for the SXV-H9 32 Issue 1 June 2002
