USB 3.0 ASTRONOMICAL CCD CAMERA
Contents
1. S CELESTRON EN 95510 SKYRIS gt 95511 SKYRIS SKYRIS i 95519 SKYRIS 95514 SKYRIS 95515 SKYRIS te USB 3 0 ASTRONOMICAL CCD CAMERA INSTRUCTIONAL MANUAL INCLUDED ITEMS SKYRIS CAMERA BODY gt gt a quz 4 USB 30 CABLE ICAP SOFTWARE CD gt SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Computer with Windows XP Vista 7 or 8 82 bit and 64 bit supported 1 Pentium M processor equivalent or higher 1 7 GHz or higher 1 USB 3 0 for maximum performance or USB 2 0 1 GB or more of system memory 1 20 GB or more hard disk space recommended 1 Telescope with a 1 25 eyepiece holder or adapter with C threads 1 Motorized Mount Altitude Azimuth or German Equatorial recommended CAMERA DRIVER INSTALLATION 11 Insert the software CD into your computer s CD ROM drive Plese Select Your Language The language selection screen will appear Z Select your language and click OK The iCap Software launch screen will appear d EZ SOFTWARE 3 Click Install Driver The Driver Installation Wizard will appear and prompt you to connect your camera 4 Plug the Skyris camera into the computer s USB port using the included cable If equipped use a USB 3 0 port The Driver Installation Wizard will automatically detect your Skyris model Click Next and proceed through the prompts until the driver installation is complete welcome to the Driver tkt Win The Siri came operate2. USB SuperSpeed logo see right When connecting the cable to the Skyris camera use the threaded fasteners to provide the most secure connection 3 Insert the camera into the 1 25 eyepiece holder on your telescope as shown previously in this manual Connecting the Camera to a Telescope 4 Locate the iCap shortcut on your desktop and open iCap iCap 2 3 5 Select your Skyris camera from the Available Video Capture Devices window and click OK G The live video window will automatically appear and display the framerate Gain and exposure are defaulted to automatic but you may need to make adjustments for the object you are imaging If a defocused image appears focus the telescope until it appears sharp on your screen If no image appears confirm your telescope is still centered on a bright object and proceed to step 8 8 Go to the Device menu and select Properties Click the Exposure tab to access the Gain and Exposure Uncheck the Auto box for each to allow for adjustments Video framerate wil de posure If the exposure time is slower than the c cunt wil closely match the exposure time Uexposur tine For iCap versio the dropdow t to the exposure time used For example if the exposure time is 1 34 9 In the Capture menu select Toggle Recording Info Dialog 1 O Click on the Codec icon to access the Recording Settings window We highly recommend selecting Uncompres
3. in USB 20 at a reduced frame rat SOFTWARE INSTALLATION 1 Click Install iCap and follow the prompts to complete installation 2 Click Install RegiStax and follow the prompts to complete installation CONNECTING THE CAMERA TO A TELESCOPE 71 Remove the dust cap on the camera body and thread the 1 25 nosepiece to the He camera body The threaded ring on the camera body should still be attached 1 25 visual back Z Insert the camera into the 1 25 eyepiece holder on your telescope The camera body can also attach to a camera adapter with C threads typically requiring the use of a Tto C adapter hx 1 25 nosepiece Optional T to C Adapter not included C CAPTURING IMAGES Detailed Solar System images are created by stacking several individual images or frames to one master image The images are captured in video allowing you to accumulate hundreds of frames in just a few seconds The video files will later be exported to RegiStax and processed as shown in Processing Images 1 Set up your telescope and point it at a bright target such as the Moon or Jupiter Center the target in your eyepiece then remove the eyepiece Remove the diagonal if you are using one Some refractor telescopes may require an extension tube when used without the diagonal Z Plug the camera into your computer s USB port If equipped use the USB 3 0 port on your computer which may also bear the
4. ate rado frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference t rado communications However there is no guarantee that interference wil not oca in para instalation H this unes does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception ich can be determined by turing the equipment off and on the ers encouraged to ry to corect the interference by one or mare of he flowing measures Reoriant or relocate the raceiing antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and rece Comnect the equipment inta an uet ona cic ferent from that to wich the receiver is connected Const the dealer ar an experienced radio TV technician for help Designed and intended for those 13 years of age and older 2013 Celestron Celestron and Symbol are trademarks of Celestron LLC AL rights reserved ww CELESTRON con
5. ject in the imaging window increase the brightness and gain controls on the Device Menu Properties This will allow you to better see the object as it passes through the imaging window Once the object is located and centered you can adjust the setting until the object is at the desired brightness and contrast HOW LONG TO TAKE STREAMING VIDEO At first you may think that the more frames you record the better However there 13 D are some limitations to the duration of video and the amount of frames you can acquire Resolution and file size can both limit the length of time of your video Since RegiStax will combine as many sharp frames as possible to achieve one high quality image you don t want to take too many images that you start to detect the rotation of the planet especially on Jupiter which makes one complete rotation in under 10 hours Also each frame of a high resolution video can equal a large file size Hundreds or thousands of frames will consume a significant amount of hard disk space We recommend storing your large video files on removable media such as an external hard drive or DVD SOLAR IMAGING Skyris cameras work well with solar telescopes or telescopes equipped with solar filters including Hydrogen Alpha or white light filters AUTOGUIDING Your Skyris can be utilized as an autoguiding camera when used in junction with an off axis guider or piggyback guidescope Skyris is compatible with many autoguiding softwa
6. me option under the Limit Setup box D and enter a number that represents one half of the number of image frames that were captured Le if 300 frames were captured then enter 150 Press the Limit button E G You will automatically advance to the Stack E screen Accept the default settings and press TT the Stack button F a E 77 Next move to the wavelet processing screen by clicking on the Wavelet tab G ce Me en Met tebe 12 8 On the Wavelet page use the wavelet sliders H to enhance the image The power of RegiStax sits in the usage of wavelets This is a special filtering technique that is very good for enhancing details in images Each wavelet layer carries part of the image within it The lower numbered wavelets control the fine detail stored in the image whereas the larger numbered wavelets control the coarse detail Each layer can be adjusted individually to reveal the desired amount of detail for your image 9 Finally press the Save Image button to save the final image To explore the many other fat bit ww of RegiStax and view helpful tutorials go to the Regitax homepage at COLOR AND MONOCHROME ACCESSORIES An optional IR Block filter is available for Skyris color cameras CCD cameras are very sensitive across visual and infrared spectrums While imaging in infrared IR can be desired in some cases consider blocking the IR to keep the best sharpness and colo
7. r balance in your astroimages Skyris monochrome cameras require the use of Red Green and Blue RGB imaging filters to achieve a color image A filter wheel is necessary to easily toggle between the filters while imaging A Skyris Filter Wheel is available from Celestron filters not included TIPS FOCUSING To achieve best focus concentrate on a high contrast feature of the object you are imaging Focusing on small features such as a moon s shadow on Jupiter or Cassini s division in the ring of Saturn will guarantee best focus across the entire image Once the frames of your video are stacked the overall brightness of the composite stacked image is usually brighter than its individual component frames For this reason itis best to keep the brightness of the video image seen on the screen dimmer than you would normally desire It is important that no part of the image is overexposed to assure the maximum amount of detail in the final composite image COLLIMATION No matter what type of telescope you image with poor collimation alignment of the optics will ruin your chances for a good image Before you begin imaging always check the collimation of your instrument and make adjustments if necessary Refer to your telescopes owner s manual for instructions on collimating the optics FINDING OBJECTS At first it can be difficult to locate individual planets due to their relative brightness To make it easier to initially find your ob
8. re programs such as MetaGuide wwwastrogeeks convBliss MetaGuide and PHD Guiding www stark labs com phdguiding htm using a guider port interface such as GPUSB from Shoestring Astronomy www store shoestringastronomy com Celestron mounts can be used without a GPUSB simply by interfacing the PC to the hand controller and connecting to the mount via ASCOM An RS 232 to USB adapter and serial cable is required C MOUNT LENSES Skyris cameras can be used with an optional C mount lens not included The threaded ring on the camera body provides C mount distancing at 125mm SPECIFICATIONS Mounting 1 25 barrel and Software iCap IC Capture Cirad compatibility DirectShow Backfocus Distance 18mm 125mm MD Conversion 12bit Memes CAd oo USB V 500m4 Shutter CCD Global Shutter Requirements Subframing Selectable Weight 350 CAMERA SPECIFIC SPECIFICATIONS Skyris 618M 71 rm ist Skyris 2740 95511 e55 05513 95512 9551 AUC 40 DUE to 40 445 mm x 3 80 mm 626 mmx 501 mm 85 mm x68 mm 15 CELESTRON LLC 2835 Columbia Street Torrance CA 90503 U S A Telephone 800 421 9649 www oetestron com FCC Mote This equipment has been tested and found t comply with the liis for a Class B dial device pursuant to part 15 of the FCC ues These nts are designed to provide reasonable protection against rmb interference in a residentia instalation This ezpipment queraes uses and can radi
9. s image quality and n retain the full Choose RGB32 or Y800 For Skyris color cameras choose RGB32 which will record in color making export easier You can also select Y800 in color models however you must debayer color convert the image later when processing RegiStax is included with your software CD and will debayer the images 11 Click on the Video File tab to access the file naming convention settings Choose the folder path you wish to save your video and select an object name and time stamp if desired Check the Index box to automatically number your video files 1 Z Click the Advanced tab to access custom video recording limits You can choose to limit the recording by the number of frames or length of time Remember that these AVI files will consume massive amounts of hard disk space very quickly Click OK when finished 13 Click the red record icon to begin recording PROCESSING IMAGES Now that your video file is recorded you can export it to RegiStax to stack and process into a final image 1 Double click the RegiStax icon on your computer s desktop to start the program 10 Z Press the Select button A and select the video that was just recorded 3 Press the Set Alignment Points button B to have RegiStax automatically select the alignment positions over your image 4 Press the Align button C to begin the alignment process 55 Select the Best Fra
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