I've just bitten the bullet and ordered a new guide camera from Starlight Express, the camera is a follow on from the well respected Lodestar but with a higher pixel count. I'm getting it through AEC in SA, it's not in the country as yet as they have four on order and including mine three are already sold.
Not much in the way of reviews around that I could find as yet but I had also planed to use it for a bit of planetry imaging as well.
I'm taking a chance here and buying on the reputation of the Lodestar.
I did come accross some discussion re the value of smaller pixels in a guider, I will be using in an Orion ST80 for guiding so I was just after some others thoughts on pixel size in a guide camera.
Specs below for your review.
NEW Superstar
Specifications:
CCD type: ICX205AL Sony SuperHAD interline CCD with low dark current and vertical anti-blooming.
CCD Full resolution Pixel data: Pixel size: 4.65uM x 4.65uM, Image format: 1392 x 1040 pixels
CCD Image area: 6.4mm (Horizontal) x 4.75mm (Vertical).
CCD quality: Grade 1
Spectral Response: QE max at 520nM (~50%), 30% at 420nM and 670nM.
Readout Noise: Less than 10 electrons RMS - typically only 7 electrons.
Full-well capacity: Greater than 20,000 e- (unbinned)
Anti-blooming: Overload margin greater than 1000x.
Dark current: Dark frame saturation time greater than 1 hour. Less than 0.1 electrons/second @ + 10C ambient.
Data format: 16 bits.
System gain: 0.3 electrons per ADU
Computer Interface: Built-in USB 2.0 compatible interface.
Image download time: Typically 0.6 seconds at full resolution using USB 2.0.
Power requirements: USB powered.
Cooling system: Ambient air cooling.
Size: 32 x 72mm black anodised aluminium barrel with 25 x 0.75mm 'C mount' thread at the CCD window end & input/output plugs at rear.
Weight: approx. 50g.
Lodestar
Specifications:
CCD type: ICX429AL Sony Exview interline CCD with low dark current and vertical anti-blooming.
CCD Full resolution Pixel data: Pixel size: 8.2uM x 8.4uM, Image format: 752 x 580 pixels
CCD Image area: 6.4mm (Horizontal) x 4.75mm (Vertical).
CCD quality: Grade 1
Spectral Response: QE max at 620nM (~65%), 35% at 400nM and 770nM.
Readout Noise: Less than 15 electrons RMS - typically only 10 electrons.
Full-well capacity: Greater than 50,000 e- (unbinned)
Anti-blooming: Overload margin greater than 1000x.
Dark current: Dark frame saturation time greater than 1 hour. Less than 0.1 electrons/second @ + 10C ambient.
Data format: 16 bits.
System gain: 0.9 electrons per ADU
Computer Interface: Built-in USB 2.0 compatible interface.
Image download time: Typically 0.2 seconds at full resolution using USB 2.0.
Power requirements: USB powered.
Cooling system: Ambient air cooling.
Size: 32 x 72mm black anodised aluminium barrel with 25 x 0.75mm 'C mount' thread at the CCD window end & input/output plugs at rear.
It looks like it has smaller pixels, smaller well depth, is less sensitive, has the same diagonal and costs more than the lodestar.
Is that right?
The Atik 314 looks to use the same sensor.
This is my only concern really that the sensitivity is less as I only have experience with a std Toucam for guiding I am hoping this is not a poor choice as a dual purpose camera namely guiding and planetary imaging.
And yes I believe that it is the same sensor as the Atik 314.
I would just hope that I should have significant gains over the old Toucam
This is my only concern really that the sensitivity is less as I only have experience with a std Toucam for guiding I am hoping this is not a poor choice as a dual purpose camera namely guiding and planetary imaging.
And yes I believe that it is the same sensor as the Atik 314.
I would just hope that I should have significant gains over the old Toucam
It will be miles better than a toucam.
Pity they can't do a cooled camera in that sized package
These little guide cameras are a great idea. SBIG has implemented it the best though plus its cheaper.
They really need a shutter to get darks unless you are running Maxim that will do a library dark subtraction whilst autoguiding. CCDsoft won't it will only do an autodark subtraction.
Perhaps this chip is cleaner and less artifacts than the previous chip and that would make the camera better otherwise on paper it doesn't appear to be a step forward. You don't need lots of MP for autoguiding you need sensitivity, cleanness of chip low noise, no hot pixels, good clean electronics, a shutter and a wide field of view (ie. largish chip). Ideally powered off the usb cable so only one cable.
Also you don't need lots of mp for planetary either its again low noise, high fps and high sensitivity, fast downloads.
Only SBIG STi does all that at the moment as far as I am aware. FLI do not make autoguiders which is a shame because they'd probably make a little beauty. Starfish isn't a bad little autoguider too but "big" compared to these eyepiece sized pocket autoguiders.
Yes as these are still on back order I do have the opportunity to change my mind I guess and was considering going back to the Lodestar for the sensitivity and also the cost saving as it will be primarily used as a guider and possibly not much planetary. At this stage I'm more interested in deep space imaging and also wide field so will have to make my mind up soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
These little guide cameras are a great idea. SBIG has implemented it the best though plus its cheaper.
They really need a shutter to get darks unless you are running Maxim that will do a library dark subtraction whilst autoguiding. CCDsoft won't it will only do an autodark subtraction.
Perhaps this chip is cleaner and less artifacts than the previous chip and that would make the camera better otherwise on paper it doesn't appear to be a step forward. You don't need lots of MP for autoguiding you need sensitivity, cleanness of chip low noise, no hot pixels, good clean electronics, a shutter and a wide field of view (ie. largish chip). Ideally powered off the usb cable so only one cable.
Also you don't need lots of mp for planetary either its again low noise, high fps and high sensitivity, fast downloads.
Only SBIG STi does all that at the moment as far as I am aware. FLI do not make autoguiders which is a shame because they'd probably make a little beauty. Starfish isn't a bad little autoguider too but "big" compared to these eyepiece sized pocket autoguiders.
To find out a bit more about the new Superstar camera I had a bit of a look around the net as you would but with it being relatively new there wasn't much out there.
I next went to Claude at AEC the Aus importers and retailers and asked if he had received any feedback from customers as they have sold a few already but nothing there so he gave a name and email to Tarry Platt at Starlight EXpress in England.
I emailed Terry last night, Sat morning their time, and asked the question how the two (Lodestar & Superstar) compared in the real world given the apparent large difference in the specs. He was very quick to reply and said he would take some pictures and send them for me to compare.
Well they were waiting for me this morning when I got out of bed, that's service for you.
So three images here of M13 taken apparently under hazy sky's,
#1 is the Lodestar 1 sec exp unbinned
#2 is the Superstar 1 sec exp with 2x2 binning giving a similar resolution to the Lodestar
#3 is the Superstar 1 sec exp unbinned
Images one and two have been adjusted to show similar background noise levels to give a better comparison of stars actually detected.
Not sure what the noise on the left of the images is but it shows up the same from both camera's so I'm guessing it's something to do with his setup.
So having seen these and how clean the unbinned Superstar image is and still showing stars down to mag 11 or better I think I'll still go for the Superstar.
I was Claude's first customer for the Superstar guider. I have had it for over a month, but haven't yet tried it out. I will have to play around with it this coming weekend.
-John
Last edited by John0z; 27-08-2012 at 07:06 PM.
Reason: fix grammar
1. There are updated drivers on the Starlight Xpress website for this guider than on the CD that comes with it. You will need the CD which has the camera program on it.
2. The camera program does not properly support the Superstar - configure it to ignore the VID/PID and set it as a SXVF H9 camera, then it should work. The installation instructions also tell you to do this.
3. There is no user manual as yet - too new, but you can use the Lodestar manual.
4. The C mount thread on the nosepiece is actually CS mount, i.e. the thread is really the same, but the focus distance is really CS - does this make sense? I put a C mount TV lens on it but it will not reach focus - I estimate that I need a C spacer to add 5mm and then it should reach focus. Unfortunately I don't have one but will have to make one or buy one to suit. This means the flange focal distance is 12.5mm for the Superstar.
Now to hook it up and work out how to achieve focus on a guidescope.
I've got one and have used it a few times. a thousand times better than the qhy5.
If you use the ascom driver you can do 2xbinning in PHD.
My only complaint is I assumed that when they said it would be a decent planetary imager that it would be comparable to something like the imaging source cameras, which is why I got the colour one.
I eventually hooked it up to a 80mm f/11 refractor. One thing that I did was to add a parfocal ring to it. First I focused the refractor with a 40mm eyepiece, then put the Superstar in and got to nearly the same focus and then fastened the ring. The reason is that the Superstar like the Lodestar is just 1.25" in diameter, no stops, so doing this allows for repeatability. My parfocal ring is a bit sloppy though, so I might make up a new one to the right dimensions.
I still haven't used it outside as yet, so will try to do so this weekend.
Well the new Superstar guide camera turned up the other day and tonight I got a bit of a go with it, that was until the jolly clouds (cant print the other name I called them) rolled in again.
Got to do an obs, this setup and pull down for a couple of hours clear sky is a pain in the bum.
Anyway a short report on the camera's performance.
Setup everything as the pre sunset sky was totally clear and the satellite image looked good for the night but that was not to be as mentioned above.
After a bit of setup and focus setting (camera was fitted to an Orion ST80) I was away and running just using PHD and the SX drivers no binning, 1sec exp time and some darks and off I went just having a look around and checking star magnitudes that I was able to see coming up using theSKY6 for reference.
The results of this brief look around impressed me but keep in mind I only have the old unmoded Toucam as reference to what is good or bad.
My impression is it's very good, a very clean image with such low background noise that I was actually able to see Galaxy's.
Now mind you they were faint but distinguishable, so from a guiding point of view it was an easy job to lock onto a mag 11 star without problems.
Can't access the camera settings in PHD like you could with the Toucam but this doesn't seem to be an issue as all I needed was to be able to select the exp time and possibly didn't even need to do darks.
So initial impressions are it was well worth the dollars and I'm looking forward to giving it a good work out.
Finally here
