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Specialized astro cameras

Our QHY 600M with the filter wheel

Our newcomer, the QHY 600M is a CMOS camera that was developed especially for astrophotography. It is our new deep-sky camera and offers among other things a full format sensor, a very high quantum efficiency, a very low readout noise and a very low dark current. For this camera we also have an off-axis-guide and a filter wheel with 9 positions.

Furthermore, four CCD cameras (ST-7, ST-8, STF-8300M, ST-i) from SBIG (Santa Barbara Instrument Group) and one CCD camera (Skyris 445C) from Celestron are available.

The ST-7 and ST-8 are deep-sky cameras, but due to their relatively small field of view they are rarely used. The STF-8300M is used as main camera for our two Spektrographs.

The ST-i and the Skyris 445C are “planetary cameras” which allow very short exposure times. They are mainly used as guiding cameras (see e.g. here or here) in connection with the QHY 600M and the spectrographs.

All cameras can be controlled via Maxim DL. For the SBIG cameras CCDOPS is also available as control software.

Main cameras

ST-7 ST-8 STF-8300 QHY 600M
Model number ST-7XME-D ST-8XME STF-8300M QHY 600M PRO-L
pixel size 9 $\mu \text{m}$ x 9 $\mu \text{m}$ 9 $\mu \text{m}$ x 9 $\mu \text{m}$ 5.4 $\mu \text{m}$ x 5.4 $\mu \text{m}$ 3.76 $\mu \text{m}$ x 3.76 $\mu \text{m}$
Number of pixels 765 x 510 1530 x 1020 3326 x 2504 9576 x 6388
Total size of the chip 6.9 mm x 4.6 mm 13.8 mm x 9.2 mm 17.96 mm x 13.52 mm 36 mm x 24 mm
Field of view with the CDK20 6.9’ x 4.6’ 13.7’ x 9.2’ 17.9’ x 13.5’ 35.8’ x 23.4’
Sampling 1.9 Pixel per arcsec 1.9 Pixel per arcsec 3.1 Pixel per arcsec 4.5 Pixel per arcsec

Planetary/Guiding cameras

Our SBIG ST-8
Skyris 445 ST-i
Model number Skyris 445C ST-i monochrome
pixel size 3.75 $\mu \text{m}$ x 3.75 $\mu \text{m}$ 7.4 $\mu \text{m}$ x 7.4 $\mu \text{m}$
Number of pixels 1280 x 960 648 x 486
Total size of the chip 6.26 mm x 5.01 mm 4.8 mm x 3.6 mm
Field of view with the CDK20 6.2’ x 5.0’ 4.8’ x 3.6’
Sampling 3.4 Pixel per arcsec 2.3 Pixel per arcsec


QHY 600M

For the new QHY 600M we have installed the following filters in the filter wheel:

Filter position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Filter H_alpha OIII SII U B V R I Clear
Comment small band small band small band broad band broad band broad band broad band broad band

ST-7 & ST-8

A filter wheel with the following filters can be attached to the ST-7 and ST-8:

Filter position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Filter U B V R I H_beta H_alpha SII OIII EMPTY
Comment broad band broad band broad band broad band broad band small band small band small band small band

The transmission curves of the filters can be found at the web page of Baader Planetarium: Filter transmission.

STF-8300

For the STF-8300 a filter wheel with the following filters is available:

Filter position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Filter Block-UV/IR (L) Blue Green Red H_alpha OIII V B
Comment luminance broad band broad band broad band small band small band broad band broad band

The transmission curves of the new filters can be found at the web page of Baader Planetarium: Filter transmission.

The transmission curves of the V and B filters are identical with the V and B filters used in the ST-7.

  • For the ST-7 and ST-8 we have an adaptive optics module, the AO-7, which can be used for guiding and to optimize the exposure quality (see e.g. here).
  • The ST-7 and ST-8 contain an additional guiding chip in addition to the normal CCD chip, which can be used to automatically track an object (see e.g. here), while the main CCD can be used to take the actual image.
  • The Off Axis Guides of the STF-8300 and the QHY 600M have the advantage that they are placed in front of the respective filter wheel and therefore the guiding is independent of the brightness of the guide star in the respective filter. For this reason, these cameras can make use of fainter guide stars/objects in comparison to the ST-7 and ST-8.

DSLR

For short time exposures and lucky imaging there is the digital (single) reflex camera (DSLR): Canon EOS 700D. It has been optimized for amateur astronomers by Baader Planetarium by changing the used filters. The transmission properties of the original Canon filters in comparison to the optimized ones can be found at the Baader web page click to view the image.

Our DSLR (Canon EOS 700D)
EOS 700D
Image sensor CMOS sensor
Size of the pixels 4.3 $\mu \text{m}$ x 4.3 $\mu \text{m}$
Number of pixels 5,184 x 3,456
Total size of the chip APS-C 22.3 $\text{mm}$ x 14.9 $\text{mm}$
Format factor and Axe ratio 1.6 and 3:2
Field of view with the Celestron C14 19.6’ x 13.1’
Field of view with the Celestron C11 27.4' x 18.3'
Field of view with the Celestron C11 + F/6.3 focal reducer 43.5' x 29.0'
Field of view with the Celestron C8 37.7' x 25.2'
Field of view with the Celestron C8 + F/6.3 focal reducer 59.9' x 40.0'
Exposure times 30-1/4,000 $\text{s}$ (halves or thirds of steps)
ISO-Sensitivity 100–12,800 (can be expanded up to 25,600)

Furthermore, one can take full-HD videos with an ISO sensitivity of max. 6,400 (can be expanded up to 12,800). The camera can be controlled by a rotatable and slewable 7,7 cm LCD touchscreen or by a computer interface. Exposure series can be taken at a maximum speed of approx. 5 images per second, which can be maintained for about 22 exposures (JPEG format) or 6 exposures (RAW format).

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  • en/ost/ccds/grunddaten.1616020727.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 2021/03/17 22:38
  • by rhainich