Orion 52085 manual

Orion ® StarShoot ™ Pro V2.0 Deep Space Color Imager #52085 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 Customer Support (800 ) 676-1343 E-mail: support@telescope.com Orio n T elescopes.com Corporate Offices (831) 763-7000 89 Hangar W ay , Watsonville, CA 95076 IN 365 Rev . A 02/09[...]

2 3 Filter .......................................... 26 Color Balance .................................. 27 Stretch ........................................ 29 Recommended Pr ocessing Sequence ............... 30 Note on File Format .............................. 30 Batch Pr ocess .................................. 30 4. Using the StarShoot Pro as [...]

4 5 1. Getting Started Parts List • StarShoot Pro V2.0 Deep Space Color Imager • 10' USB cable • 12' DC power cable with lighter plug • CD-ROM • Har d carrying case System Requir ements (refer to Figur e 1) T elescope The StarShoot Pro can be used with most telescopes compatible with 2" for - mat eyepieces. The camera is si[...]

6 7 Mount Deep sky imaging with the StarShoot Pro requir es an equatorial mount with a right ascension (R.A.) motor drive. The goal for your mount is to seamlessly track the apparent movement of the sky as the Earth rotates. The tracking must be very accurate, or the object you want to image will drift and blur across the camera’ s field of view[...]

8 9 2. Click Install . 3. The InstallShield Wizard will start. Click Next . 4. Read the Maxim DL License Agreement. If you agree with the terms, then select I accept the terms in this license agr eement and click Next . 5. Click Install . The installation will pr oceed. 6. The installation is now complete. Click the Finish button. Y ou can start Ma[...]

10 11 7. A Windows Security window will appear and mention that “Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software”. Choose Install this driver software anyway . 8. When the window appears telling you “The software for this device has been successfully installed”, click Close . This completes the driver instal- lation pr ocess. 9[...]

12 13 screen, you may need to stop-down the apertur e of your telescope further . T ry making another aperture mask with a diameter of only 1⁄4". 10. T urn th e te le sco pe ’ s focu s kn ob so th e fo cus er dra wtu be mov es s low ly inward. The drawtube needs to go approximately 18mm inward from where the eyepiece focuses (for most eyep[...]

14 15 of the mouse. T o do this, hold down the Shift key , then left-click and drag the mouse on the image. Y ou’ll find this featur e to be a great convenience when fine adjusting the scr een stretch to get an image to look its best. Instead of using the Scr een Stretch Window , it is faster to use the Q uick Stretch facility . This allows you[...]

16 17 5. Click the Expose button. Y ou should see the out of focus star in the image. If you do not see anything, you need to increase the exposur e time. 6. Check that the Subframe section at the bottom of the Camera Control window has both the On and Mouse boxes checked on. 7. Draw a small box around the unfocused star with your mouse (hold-click[...]

18 19 V ery accurate polar alignment is essential for deep sky imaging. Stars will streak acr oss the field of view without pr ecise polar alignment and tracking. Longer exposures of 60 seconds or more also r equire autoguiding with a separate camera. The Orion StarShoot AutoGuider can be operated with the StarShoot Pr o in MaxIm DL Essentials. T [...]

20 21 is the Base filename , and you choose to Autosave five images, then the images will appear in the selected file folder as “OrionNebula1dark_0001. fit”, “OrionNebula1dark_0002.fit”, “OrionNebula1dark_0003.fit”, “OrionNebula1dark_0004.fit”, and “OrionNebula1dark_0005.fit”. Using the word “dark” in the Base filename[...]

22 23 By binning the images in 2x2, you will bypass the RGB filter built into the cam- era; so the resulting binned images will be black and white, without the ability to convert to color . 3. Image Processing After all your image data is captur ed, you are r eady to pr ocess your images to a final resultant image. All of your light images, dark [...]

24 25 2. Select Convert Raw to Color in the Pr ocess menu. 3. Select StarShoot Pro High Quality in the Camera T ype pull down menu (Figure 17). 4. Click OK and the image should appear in color . Y ou can make several adjustments to the Color Balance if needed (see “ Color Balance ”). Combining Deep Sky Images Each individual deep sky image is f[...]

26 27 sen as the r eference is r ejected fr om the stack, you will not be able to Overlay All Images . 6. Now , click the Overlay All Images button. All of the selected images will stack on top of each other to form one resultant image. Click OK Set the Screen Stretch Window to Medium (or otherwise manually adjust for best image appearance), and us[...]

28 29 Color images fr om CCD cameras typically require a background level adjust- ment. This is accomplished by bringing the background level (or bias) in each color plane down to zero. Each of the Background Level values is subtracted from every image pixel in its color plane. Any pixel values that become nega- tive are forced to zero. The Auto bu[...]

30 31 Recommended Pr ocessing Sequence What is the best order to apply the processing functions in? Here is a recom- mended sequence: 1. Calibrate (Dark Subtract and Flat Field calibrate) 2. Convert Raw to Color 3. Combine 4. Filter 5. Color Balance 6. Stretch Once you have the combined image, you ar e free to continue pr ocessing the image as desi[...]

32 33 5. Click OK to start the Batch Process operation. Successfully converted and saved files are removed from the list box. If an error occurred the file will remain in the list. Point the mouse cursor at an image left in the list. The appropriate err or message will appear in the Status Bar at the bottom of the MaxIm DL Essentials Edition main[...]

34 35 7. The ASCOM T elescope Chooser (Figure 25) will appear . Select your telescope model from the provided choices. If your model does not appear , it is not supported by the ASCOM platform. 8. After you have selected your tele - scope model, click the Properties button. 9. In the window that pops-up, choose your specific Scope T ype and desir [...]

36 37 telescope does not move, check the Settings . Remember , you have to set up a method for sending the autoguider commands to the telescope! 11. The star should move in an L shape. If it does not move enough, a warning message will appear . The r ecorded positions will be displayed in the scr oll- ing log, along with any err or messages. Note: [...]

38 39 View Menu Zoom – Increases or decreases level of image magnification on computer screen. When you zoom in too much, you will start to see the squares of indi- vidual pixels. When zoomed in, you can use Quick Pan ; simply hold down the Ctrl key , then left-click and drag the mouse on the image. Night Vision – T oggles Night V ision mode. [...]

40 41 5. If the star drifts north, the telescope mount is pointing too far west. If the star drifts south, the telescope mount is pointing too far east. Determine which way the star drifted and make the appropriate corr ection to the azi- muth position of the mount. Rotate the entire mount (and tripod) slightly east or west as needed or use the azi[...]

42 43 7. Specifications CCD Sensor: Sony ® SuperHAD ™ ICX413AQ Color Sensor format: 1.8" Pixel array: 3032x2016 (6,112,512 total) Pixel size: 7.8µm x 7.8µm Exposure range: 0.002 seconds to 9.3 hours A/D conversion: 16 bit Binning optional 2x2 Thermoelectric cooling: 30°C (54° F) below ambient temperature, sealed dry air chamber to prev[...]

44 45 arrows to change the speed setting (Figure 27). The minimum is 1; the maximum is 8. Check your USB connection for anything that could potentially introduce interference. Large power supplies or even a cellular phone near the camera or USB cable could interfer e with the data as it is uploaded from the camera to the computer . If you ar e usin[...]

46 47 600mm 138.8’ X 90.6’ 750mm 111’ X 72.5’ 900mm 92.5’ X 60.4’ Appendix B. Field of V iew Quick Refer ence Guide For your convenience, refer to the list of common telescope focal lengths and their corresponding fields of view provided by the StarShoot Pr o. The angular field of view is shown in arc-minutes. The image scale shows th[...]

48 49 T elescope Focal Length Angular Field of View Image Scale of the Moon Image Scale of M42 1000mm 83.3’ X 54.4’ 1250mm 66.6’ X 43.5’ 1800mm 46.3’ X 30.2’ 2032mm 41’ X 26.8’ 2540mm 32.8’ X 21.4’ 2800mm 29.7’ X 19.4’[...]

50 51 T elescope Focal Length Angular Field of View Image Scale of the Moon Image Scale of M42 3000mm 27.8’ X 18.1 3910mm 21.3’ X 13.9’ Appendix C. Summarized Procedur e to Imaging Deep Sky Objects Action Process T ree Image Capture 1. Focus on a moderately bright star at least 30º (or more above the horizon). Camera Control Window , Mode ?[...]

52 53 Action Process T ree 4. T ake a flat field image by pointing the telescope at a uniform and featureless light source, like the sky at dawn or a white sheet of paper . Find the right exposure time that creates a Max Pixel value of approximately 20000, then proceed to Autosave your flats. Y ou do not have to take your flat fields before yo[...]

54 55 Notes ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ _____________[...]

56 One-Y ear Limited W arranty This Orion StarShoot Pro V2.0 is warranted against defects in materi- als or workmanship for a period of one year from the date of purchase. This warranty is for the benefit of the original retail purchaser only . During this warranty period Orion T elescopes & Binoculars will r epair or replace, at Orion’ s op[...]