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Table of contents for the manual
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Orion ® Parsec ™ Series Astr onomical Imaging Cameras Parsec 8300C (Color) #52075 Parsec 8300M (Monochrome) #52077 Parsec 10100C (Color) #52078 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 Orio n T elescopes.com Customer Support (800 ) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope.com Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 89 Han[...]
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2 3 T able of Contents 1. Introduction ........................... 4 1.1. The P arsec 8300 .............................. 4 1.2. The P arsec 10100C ............................ 4 1.3. Feature Highlights ............................. 5 2. Getting Star ted ........................ 6 2.1. P ar ts List ............................................. 6 2.[...]
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4 5 1. Intr oduction W elcome to the e xciting wor ld of astro-imaging. Y our new P arsec ™ Astronomical Imaging Camera is capab le of captur - ing prof essional quality astro-images of y our f a v orite celestial objects. Y ou can showcase spectacular images on y our com - puter , share them on the inter net, or pr int them. The camera’ s larg[...]
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6 7 • LED Status Indicator: T wo LEDs on the P arsec indicate the camera power , exposure , image readout, and download (Figure 2) A Note about the Shutter The P arsec’ s leaf shutter moves freely when the camer a is off . Y ou may notice the shutter in an arbitrary position when removing the dust cap from the nosepiece (Figure 3.1). This is[...]
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8 9 The camera’ s pixel siz e and sensitivity make the P arsec suitable f or most tele- scopes. For telescopes with v er y long focal lengths (2000mm and greater), y ou can optionally bin 2x2 (see section 2. Astronomical Imaging) to utilize greater sensitivity and obtain shar per images at the e xpense of resolution. Note that the P arsec 8300C ([...]
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10 11 T o install the camera driver: 1 . Inser t the CD-ROM into the computer . The Launcher will appear (Figure 6). (For Windows 7 and Vista computers , the A utoPla y window will appear first. Select Run Launcher . exe , then the Launcher will appear .) 2 . In Launcher screen, select Install FTDI . This installs the driver files f or the P arse[...]
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12 13 3 . In the Setup tab in MaxIm DL ’ s Camera Control Windo w , select Setup Camera . Locate the Orion Parsec in the dropdo wn list and clic k OK (Figure 10). 4 . Click Connect and your P arsec will connect to MaxIm DL. The Expose T ab and T aking your First Parsec Image W e recommend becoming f amiliar with the P arsec during the da y . Conn[...]
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14 15 arrow b utton ne xt to the preset name to manage your presets , including Update Current Preset, and Sav e As Ne w Preset. See MaxIm DL ’ s Help T opics f or more detailed inf ormation. Readout Mode In the Expose T ab , select Normal f or the best image quality , and Fast f or a quick er image download. Frame T ype Choose, Light (Raw or Col[...]
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16 17 4.1. Focusing F ocusing the CCD camera is one of the most critical par ts of imaging. It can be challenging, but MaxIm DL has some helpful f eatures which will assist y ou when f ocusing your P arsec. Bef ore f ocusing, mak e sure your mount is polar aligned and trac king. F or best results, we recommend f ocusing on a star at least 30° abov[...]
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18 19 4 . Click Expose . 5 . Carefully watch the FWHM and Max Pixel v alues in the Camera Control Windo w . If you are stand- ing se ver al f eet from y our laptop while f ocusing, check the Displa y Large Statistics option in the Expose tab (Figures 16.1 and 16.2). The FWHM (Full-Width Half Maximum) indicates the diameter of the star . The Max V a[...]
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20 21 should drop below 100% (Figure 17.3). If the Cooler P ower does not drop below 100% after a couple of minutes , y ou will need to raise the Setpoint . 5 . Monitor the Sensor T emp and Setpoint and make sure they match. If the Senor T emp is higher than the Setpoint , you will need to raise the Setpoint . W e recommend keeping the Cooler P owe[...]
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22 23 7 . Select the file f older in which you would lik e to sav e the images with Select Image Save P ath f ound b y clicking the arro w in the A utosave Setup window (Figure 18.2) and set the name of the file in A utosave Filename . T ypically the name of the object being imaged, such as “OrionNebula1”, will be entered here. If “OrionNeb[...]
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24 25 Flat Fields A flat field is an image taken with unif orm featureless light entering the telescope, such as a b lue sky in the early mor ning or after sunset. Flat fields solve a n umber of issues in your astro- images. Vignetting Vignetting (Figure 21.1) in a telescope re veals edge-dark ening in the astro- image. The large CCD chip in the[...]
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26 27 Each individual deep sky image is f aint 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 impro ving the signal to noise ratio . The more imag- es you combine , the better the resulting image will look. (Figures 22.1 and 22.2). Read section 5[...]
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28 29 3 . Select Orion P arsec High Quality in the Select Camera pull down menu (Figure 24). 4 . Click OK and the image should appear in color . Y ou can make se ver al adjustments to the Color Balance if needed (see “Color Balance”). 5.3. Stacking – Combining Images Combining individual deep sky images enhances the detail in the deep sky obj[...]
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30 31 10. Y ou can select one of the images to be the Reference Image , using the right-clic k menu. This image will not be shifted during alignment; all other images will be aligned to it. If you do not select the ref erence image, the first image in the list will be used. 11. Select the Color tab (Figure 29). If you wish to customiz e the color [...]
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32 33 detail finer than the pix el size of the frames being combined. The technique is described at http:// xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/9808087. 5.4. Filter Filtering an image is an operation that emphasizes certain character istics of an image while suppressing others. MaxIm DL suppor ts sev eral kinds of Filters, such as: Unsharp Mask, K ernal Fil[...]
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34 35 inf ormation from lev els 1 to 254 and almost all the brightness information at lev el 255. Thus a white image results. If you plan to do all image processing within MaxIm DL Edition (or the optional full version of MaxIm DL), sa ving images in the FITS (.fit) File Format using the IEEE Float Size Format is recommended. This ensures that all[...]
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36 37 does not mov e, chec k the Settings . Remember , y ou ha ve to set up a method f or sending the autoguider commands to the telescope! 11. The star should move in an L shape . If it does not mov e enough, a warning message will appear . The recorded positions will be displayed in the scrolling log, along with any error messages . Note: If the [...]
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38 39 Red helps maintain the human ey e’ s dar k adaptation, Blue is the color to which most CCD cameras are least sensitiv e, and Dim maintains the color displa y but reduces the ov erall intensity to about one-eighth normal. • In red mode, all menus , dialog bo x es , etc., are s witched to red. Monochrome images are displa yed red, b ut c[...]
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40 41 Any quality optical lens cleaning tissue and optical lens cleaning fluid specifi- cally designed f or multi-coated optics can be used to clean the glass surf ace of the P arsec’ s optical window . Ne v er use regular glass cleaner or cleaning fluid designed f or ey eglasses. Bef ore cleaning with fluid and tissue, b low an y loose par t[...]
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42 43 9. Specifications Parsec 8300 CCD Sensor (P arsec 8300C) K odak KAF-8300CE CCD Sensor (P arsec 8300M) K odak KAF-8300-AXE CCD detector size 17.96mm x 13.52mm Sensor f ormat 22.5mm diagonal Pix el arra y 3326x2504 (8,328,304 total) Pix el size 5.4µm x 5.4µm Exposure range 0.002 seconds to infinity A/D conv ersion 16 bit Binning 1x1 and 2x2[...]
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44 One-Y ear Limited W arranty This Orion Parsec Astronomical Imaging Camer a is warranted against def ects in materials or workmanship for a period of one year from the date of purchase. This warranty is f or the benefit of the original retail purchaser only . During this warranty period Orion T elescopes & Binoculars will repair or replace, [...]