new planetary cameras coming - sony icx618ala

[bird]

Info here is probably of interest only to planetary imagers...

There is a thread on CN where Torsten Edelmann and Emil Kraaikamp tried replacing the ccd in their DMK21 camera with a new Sony Ex-View ccd, and saw a dramatic increase in sensitivity. The original thread is here:

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3567648/page/2/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

and here's a followup thread with a very impressive animation of Mars using the new ccd:

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3661003/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

And another overview page of this experiment:

http://www.astrokraai.nl/wiki/index.php?title=Installing_the_ICX6 18ALA-E_CCD_on_the_DMK21.

I've gone through the product sheets for the new icx618ala ccd, and compared it to the two most popular existing ccds - the icx098bl as used in the DMK21, and the icx424al as used in the Dragonfly2 (my camera), the Lumenera SkyNyx and LU075M cameras.

There are two obvious improvements that I can see - the spectral sensitivity of the icx618ala is much improved at the red/near-IR, in fact on Mars through an IR-pass 742nm filter this ccd has more than 2x the relative sensitivity of the others. The only downside is that the blue end is slightly less sensitive - 75% in the icx618ala as compared to 85% in the others.

But this is more than compensated once you look at the ccd sensitivity numbers :-) The raw sensitivities for what Sony term "Standard Imaging condition 1" are given as:

ICX089bl: 500mv
ICX424al: 880mv
ICX618ala: 1200mv

This doesn't tell the whole story, as the pixels are different sizes in the three ccd's, the icx098bl is 5.6um, icx424al is 7.4um, and the icx618ala is 5.6um. Once we compensate for the pixel size differences (ie imagine adjusting the focal length of the scope to give images the same size in all three ccd's) we get the following sensitivity in mV per square micron:

ICX098bl: 15.94 mV/u2
ICX424al: 16.07 mV/u2
ICX618ala: 38.26 mV/u2

Here's the payoff - the ICX618ala has more than 2x the sensitivity of the others, and that peak is in the orange (600nm) and retains 90% of that sensitivity up to 800nm.

For those of you still awake by now, this effectively means that I would get the same brightness increase as if I'd replaced my 14.5" mirror with a 22" mirror with my current camera. Not bad at all...

Once again, on Mars with an ir-742nm filter, we could expect to see something like 4x the image brightness due to both the spectral response and improved sensitivity.

A few cameras are coming onto the market right now with this ccd, I'll be receiving a Flea3 camera from Point Grey Research in the next month or so to test... their website for this camera is www.flea3.com. It has all the firewire niceness you could want :-)

cheers, Bird

[Paul Haese]

I can see more focal length with the same frame rates I am getting now. That would be spectacular. Imagine being at 21,000mm focal length and getting 45 fps on say Jupiter. It would mean much of Jupiter would be outside the viewing panel on the 640 x 480 version, but it would mean we could image real detail in the cloud structures. The implications for Jupos would be astounding.

This kind of gets over the problem with having to buy larger diameter scopes. Although resolution requirements would still apply, albeit that we are well past the Dawes limit each time we image. Hmmm this is very interesting.

Thanks for the heads up Anthony. Might have to keep an eye out for a new camera with the new sensor. Lumenera are resting on their butts and not produced a new camera for years. Time to make a change.

[bird]

Yes, you get to choose - more spatial resolution, or increased signal-to-noise, or increased fps (or some combination of the three).

cheers, Bird

[Troy]

This icx618 sensor looks very impressive. I like the look of the wavelength response graph because if I'm interpreting it right and like you said Bird the blue channel is less sensitive so hopefully Saturn will not turn out so blue? :D
I wonder when Sony will release a 7.4u sensor with EXview HAD technology?
It would be interesting to see the Sensitivity of this chip. Well maybe I'm assuming it would be even more sensitive :shrug:

[Bassnut]

Why only, what, 3 planets :shrug:;):D:P . I hope you guys try planetary nebs, some are very bright, can be done :thumbsup:.

[bird]

Mercury, Venus, Luna, Mars, Jupiter, Io, Ganymede, Callisto, Saturn, Uranus

Lots of potential targets. Spatial resolution is only 640x480 which limits the use on large objects.

cheers, Bird

[kinetic]

It's certainly a great development Anthony.
I hope it all works out.
I raised it a few days ago here
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=58087

I've done some chip changeovers and it's not exactly an
easy job. ICX098s only though.
As I mentioned to Trev, it would be good if TIS go down that path
but I wouldn't expect it to be on a price par with the mono 098.

Steve

[davidpretorius]

thanks for the info bird

[TorstenEdelmann]

Hi all,

Just to add some more. Another choice for a camera based on the ICX618 would be
the new Basler GigE Ace series. It's going to be available these days. Detailed info
you can find here:
http://www.baslerweb.com/beitraege/beitrag_en_99200.html

Compared to the Basler scout (sca640-120) I'm currently using the ace comes with nearly the
same functions and performance should be equal, but the price is much more attractive.
I plan supporting the Basler ace as well as PGR cameras (FlyCapture SDK) in the next release of
my capture tool:
http://firecapture.wonderplanets.de (http://firecapture.wonderplanets.de/)

CS,
Torsten
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.wonderplanets.de/
http://firecapture.wonderplanets.de/

[iceman]

Hi Torsten, :welcome: to IceInSpace.
Looks great! I will be following with interest.

[Emil]

Now that sounds sweet. I wasn't sure if there was any usable software for the Basler Ace camera's, but this is at least one software package I could use to capture the data... When (better: if) I get my Basler Ace camera :)

[iceman]

Hey Emil, welcome to IceInSpace :welcome:

I look forward to seeing your images!