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Adirondack Video Products
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A. Stellacam 2 (based on Watec 120N) deep sky integrating video kit comprising:
Camera head, lower left, based on Watec 120N, PAL version
Control box, centre, with 3 metre lead
Power supply, top left, 12 volts 300mA, stabilised
1.25" nosepiece, lower centre, also threaded to take filter
3 metre coaxial cable with BNC connectors, plus BNC-Phono adapter
NOW ONLY £ 499 INCLUDING POWER SUPPLY, 1.25" ADAPTER, VIDEO LEAD, AND FREE UK FIRST CLASS RECORDED POSTAGE
B. Close-up of Control Box. Frames can be stacked, doubling each time, up to 256 frames, by selection using the top rotary switch, and the gain can be varied using the lower rotary switch. Other controls include 3 position gamma, and a freeze frame button (red button on the side at top-right of box)
C. PC remote control kit for Stellacam 2 comprising:
Software on CD
Interface box (replaces normal control box) + 3 metre connecting lead to camera
3 metre RJ6/6 cable, plus RJ-9D adapter for PC serial port
D. Close-up of PC screen. Selections of number of frames to be integrated, and gain, are by sliders, as is the gamma control, and as with the control box, there is also a freeze frame control
PRICING
Stellacam 2 complete as above £ 499
Stellacam 2 complete with PC remote control as above £ 670
PC remote control option only £ 175
prices include VAT and free UK mainland delivery
To order e-mail with card details or phone [44]-(0)1189-700-777 or fax [44]-(0)1189-701-031
** AWESOME DEEP SKY VIDEO CAMERA **
Comparison on Ex chip versus HAD chip
Be very sure that you choose the product with the chip you want before purchasing (Sony ICX248AL HAD EXview CCD) for the Stellacam EX at £ 525, including remote button box and psu, or (Sony ICX038DLA HAD CCD) for the non-Ex version of the Stellacam at £ 350
Stellacam EX camera head, left, and standard control box for osd, right. Only a single cable is required between control box and camera, and UP TO 200ft can be accommodated, allowing you to have remote operation from your control room or even in the comfort of your home.
** NOW WITH PC REMOTE CONTROL OPTION **
Click HERE for details of pc remote control
CCD IMAGERS - COMBINE THE EX WITH YOUR EXISTING CCD CAMERA
Click HERE for details of combined video and CCD imaging
Click HERE for details of 'C' mount lenses and accessories, and more gallery pictures
Click HERE for more images taken with Adirondack video cameras
Link to Adirondack Video Astronomy website
PlanetCam - colour video camera for high quality lunar and planetary work.
All Adirondack products are PAL compatible and come with 230v power units and 1.25" drawtube.
Optional interface cards available for PCMCIA (laptop/portable) and PCI (desk-top) PC.
UK Prices including VAT and free UK mainland delivery
Stellacam EX inc control box, cables, psu £ 525*
PC remote control option £ 120 only for either upgrade to existing Stellacam EX, or for provision with new Stellacam EX.
Stellacam , non EX version £ 350
Planetcam £ 395
* The key to flexible control of the Stellacam EX is remote operation, and the control box can be up to 30 metres or more away from the camera, usually co-located with the monitor or computer. The standard cable supplied is approximately 3.6 metres (12ft). Extension cables are available. For users who do not need remote operation we can offer a lower cost unit (Stellacam EX Lite) which has the selector buttons on the back of the camera body. However, it should be noted that focus and telescope position could be disturbed through having to press buttons on the camera body itself, usually in dark conditions, thus it is advantageous to have the separate control box even when this is located near to the camera.
Images taken with the Stellacam EX - all frame-grabs from a Sony digital recorder
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A. Using a small 25mm C-mount lens in total darkness, trees look as though they are illuminated in a car's headlights. Vega and the trapezium show up beautifully, with the latter being far brighter than can be seen with the naked eye. The two trails at the top are of natural satellites. Note that all the images shown here are with maximum integration of 128 frames, and maximum gain settings.
B. Using my 14" Newtonian, the FAINTER central star in M57 can be clearly seen - AWESOME. In fact, the 15'th mag central star is easy to record on a 6" aperture instrument !
C. M13 using a Takahashi Epsilon 160 f/3.3 (part field of view).
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D. M17, the Omega Nebula using a Takahashi Epsilon 160 f/3.3 (full field of view). Normally we do not expect to see this object very well from UK. From my latitude of 51.5N it is always low in the sky, in this case about to go behind the dark shadow of a tree at bottom, and also in the bright sky glow from the nearby town of Basingstoke
E. BY MISTAKE I forgot to take a Baader solar filter off my Sky 90, then for fun, in OVERCAST daylight, set the Stellacam EX to max. The pine tree, about 100 metres away, shows up well enough to just be able to make out lines on the fir cone top left of picture, and with similar clarity to that of sunspots images taken through the solar film.
F. This field shows from mag 2 to fainter than mag 15 using the Epsilon 160 - a dynamic range of AT LEAST 100,000 !!! It is testimony to the fantastic Sony CCD sensors that there is virtually no bleed, saturation or interference, and outside the immediate glow of the main star the very faintest stars can be clearly seen.
M42 image taken using a Takahashi Epsilon 160 from Aldermaston. Note:
1. The Epsilon is only a 6" aperture instrument
2. The light polution here limits the faintest visual object to about mag 4.5, so in a dark sky site the contrast would be much higher
3. Remember the Stellacam only has a mid-size chip, so the above field of view is due to the f/3.3 focal ratio of the Epsilon (focal length 530mm)
4. This image, like all the others above, is a frame grab of one single frame only. By merging several frames the detail and signal-to-noise ratio could be significantly improved - of course one has a huge number of frames on the video if one wants to do this !!
HOT PIXELS
Bet you didn't notice any in the above images, but here is a map showing that there is a penalty for the incredible sensitivity of the Stellacam EX, and that is that all sensors will show some evidence of hot pixels with maximun integration/gain settings. This is a small price to pay for a non-cooled camera which manages to grab and combine frames in real time, and the proof is that most of the time you will not notice them. For those that want to make good still images then by doing several frame-grabs off-line from your video tape, or on-line via a pc card, you can co-register and combine them, in which case the hot pixels will disappear. Alternatively you could frame-grab a single dark frame which would contain the hot pixels, and take a second frame grab of a dark frame, this time with the integration set to zero, ie running at normal video rate. This second one will contain no hot pixels. thus subtracting this from the first dark frame will leave a map of (essentially) zeros, with just the hot pixels left. Finally, subtracting this from the frame-grabbed image will (approximately) remove the hot pixels from the image. Note that relatively small changes in temperature make a large difference to the amount of dark current build-up, and thus you should try to take a bit of 'dark' video at the same time and temperature as your main image.
Standard: RG59 Coax, BNC-BNC, with BNC-Phono adapter included: 3 metre cable.
Optional cable in lieu of above: RG59 Coax, BNC-BNC, with BNC-Phono adapter included: 5 - 60 metres @ 50p per metre
Standard: PC Control cable RJ6/4, with RJ-9D serial port adapter, 3 metres
Optional cable in lieu of above: PC Control cable RJ6/4, with RJ-9D serial port adapter, 4-40 metres @ 25p per metre
Note: if you want the button box to be co-located with the pc/monitor, then use the above cables to remote the camera. If you want the button box to be near the camera, but remote from the pc/monitor, then use the option below. The button box can be locked out using the PC remote control facility
Standard: fixed 4 metre, 12-way cable with 9-D termination from control box to camera (stellacam)
Option: extension 12-way 9D M-F screened cable, 2-35metres, @ 200p per metre