RCA SOLAM VIDEO CAMERA Camcorder User Manual
Contents
1. Capturing real time images of the Sun White H alpha amp Calcium light ASTROVID SolarCam PROPER USE AND CARE OF YOUR ASTROVID SolarCcam ASTRONOMICAL CCD VIDEO IMAGING SYSTEM Congratulations on the purchase of the ASTROVID SolarCam VIDEO CAMERA This is a high quality Astronomical CCD Video Imaging System with 2 3 inch monochrome CCD that will provide you with the best full disk and high resolution Solar Viewing possible With proper care this system should last many years and provide excellent images SAFETY PRECAUTIONS 1 Use only the power transformer supplied with the camera Use of any other power transformer will damage the camera and invalidate the Warranty 2 A portable 12 volt battery pack can be used if there is a 0 5 500 milliamp amp fuse wired in series with the positive lead We also found that an excellent way to use the cameras in the field is to use a 110 volt inverter These are available from either Wal Mart or K mart for less than 50 00 ADIR NDACK 3 Avoid static electricity discharges These Va may damage the CCD chip Ast ronomy 4 Do not point the CCD towards the Sun Source for Imaging unless protected with a proper solar filter or Herschel Wedge Permanent damage to the CCD chip will result if the CCD is not protected 5 Do not directly touch or attempt to clean the CCD chip 6 The thread mount on the CCD camera has fine threads Do not force it onto the 1 25 C adapter T C2. adapter or lens mount 7 In our use of the T C adapter we have found that at times small metal flakes from the T adapter threads will end up on the protective glass that covers the CCD chip When using your camera they will show up as irregular opaque black dots on the screen They can either be blown off using an Air Syringe Bulb available at drugs stores or by using a very soft artist s paintbrush to carefully dust them off 8 Keep the cover on the camera when it is not in use 9 Treat the ASTROVID SolarcCam camera as a fine piece of equipment and it will give you many years of enjoyment Please note Camera setup will immediately follow the next section Astronomer s J PLUGGING INTO THE UNIVERSE Your results will depend greatly on seeing conditions at the time of observation 1 A T C or 1 25 C adaptor is required to attach the video camera to the telescope 2 The camera can be attached directly to the telescope via the T C adapter or via a 1 25 C adapter into an eyepiece holder for prime focus videography 3 If closer views are desired either a barlow or stacked barlows with the 1 25 C adaptor or an eyepiece projection setup must be used 4 Eyepiece projection or Barlow enlargement can be used for closer views of prominences and sunspot detail Astrovip SolarcCam CCD VIDEO CAMERA 5 Eyepieces with focal lengths from 7 40mm work well with eyepiece projection depending upon the focal length
3. camera This is where the DC power plug goes into the camera Mini Dip Switch Panel Center left of camera Rectangular box containing six dip switches All six dip switches should be in the up position for proper operation of the camera You do not need to change the position of these dip switches GAIN Dial Dial next to mini dip panel labeled GAIN A F M This three position dial allows you to change the gain settings Gains relates to the strength of the video signal An increase in gain also increases the noise in the background of the image The goal of the gain control is to manually adjust it to keep it as low as possible The adjustment of the gain in done in conjunction with the adjustment of the shutter speeds It is preferred to use as high a shutter speed as possible so as to overcome some of the atmospheric seeing or turbulence of the atmosphere The three gain settings are A Auto Gain varies from 0 dB to 20 dB depending on the light conditions F Fixed Gain with the gain set at 13 dB M Manual Gain The gain is manually adjusted from 0 20 db You do this by placing the dial in the M position with the mini screwdriver Once this is done you will use the yellow pot labeled M GAIN manual gain in the lower right corner of the camera to manually adjust the gain Rotating clockwise will increase the gain Rotating counterclockwise will decrease the gain 75 OHM On OFF Switch Vertical Switch on bottom left hand side of camera l
4. abeled 75 ohm ON OFF Should be left in the OFF position for most imaging You may turn VIEW AND RECORD YOUR it on if you are passing through a monitor and going to a recording IMAGES AT THE SAME TIME device or if you are running very long distances of video cable You SHOW THE WONDERS OF can experiment turning the switch on and off once you have your THE SUN TO LARGE GROUPS image on the screen AT ONE TIME Trigger Switch This is the vertical switch at the bottom labeled TRIG Used for external triggering of the camera Not generally used for Solar Imaging Leave in the position VIDEO BNC Connector Round Female Video BNC Connector labeled VIDEO This is the EIA monochrome video output for the camera It goes to any TV Monitor VCR Recorder Frame Grabber etc Manual Gain Yellow Dial labeled M GAIN Used when making manual gain adjustments Use after setting the gain dial to M for manual See above please USING YOUR ASTROVID SolarCam Part 1 Because solar imaging is a little more involved than other planetary and lunar imaging It is recommend that once you achieve your best images you make note of your setup i e camera settings gain shutter gamma filters used etc 1 Make all of your camera connections and plug in the power Mae sure you have you telescope setup with proper solar protection for both your eyes an the SolarcCam Attach the camera to the telescope via the 1 25 inch adapter Adjust the shu
5. and Green filters if you have them as they will act as Neutral Density filters in H alpha light 4 For Calcium light you can use red and green filters as these will act as Neutral Density filters 5 If you have a set of imaging filters you can use the colored filters from these sets Some of the sets have built in IR blocking and others do not ASTROVID Solarcam CCD VIDEO CAMERA USING YOUR ASTROVID SolarCam Part 3 Hydrogen alpha Prominence Detail l 2 Solar prominences are imaged in Hydrogen alpha light Solar prominences are much dimmer than the surface detail found on the sun The majority of observed solar prominences do not change in appearance very quickly However you may be able to find one of the changes morphology in rapid time Gain becomes the more important parameter in imaging solar prominences An increase of gain will boost the signal bringing out the much fainter prominences This is done by increasing the manual gain Increase the manual gain until you see a prominence You also want to decrease the shutter speed as you make your initial adjustments to allow the promi nences to come into view Once a prominence appears on screen you can start to make adjustments to your image You can see that if the gain is increased you start to lose some of the fine detail burning it out but bring out the fainter structures The goal is to adjust the gain so that the most amount of detail can be imaged in the prom
6. e a green or blue filter on wide field telescopes Because the setups for solar imaging vary so much some experimentation is need here to determine whether a filter is needed or not for your particular setup Keeping notes of your results will help in saving time for setup and will lead you to the best possible images Enjoy Your Astrovid SolarCcam Be sure to try it on the Moon and Planets Also AVA Astro Corp 08 09 2005 jec
7. e use of a monochrome 2 3 inch format video CCD will give the largest field of view possible This will enable full disk viewing on many more telescopes See also the separate specification sheet for parameters of each camera control function The following controls on the camera are detailed as follows Manual Shutter Speed Dial Round dial labeled 0 90n back upper left corner of the camera Use the mini screwdriver provided to change the shutter speeds Shutter speeds go from 1 60 second to 1 10000 second Position 0 7 Position 8 Filed integration 1 60 second or Frame Integration 1 30 second Position 9 no use Internal External Sync Switch Horizontal switch labeled INT EXT Just to the right of the Shutter Speed Dial Not really used for Solar Imaging Leave switch to the left on internal Gamma On Off Switch Vertical switch labeled V ON OFF Just to right of Internal external sync switch This will control the gamma which relates closely to the contrast of the image In the off position the gain is adjusted to the normal daylight conditions gamma 1 0 In the ON position the gamma is increased This will give a higher contrast image and is useful for solar surface detail You may want to experiment in both positions as the use of various neutral density and colored filters i e blue and green will also affect the contrast ASTROVID Solarcam CCD VIDEO CAMERA DC IN Plug This is the 12 pin hi rose connector on the upper right of the
8. e wall transformer power supply into the power cord that is now attached to the DC IN 6 Connect the white Composite video cable s Male BNC connector to the back of the SolarCam camera s female BNC connector labeled Video 7 The other end of the white video cable has a Male RCA Adapter that can be plugged into a VIDEO IN jack for a television camcorder or VCR please note set VCR or TV to line in or video in 10 Our monitors come with the same BNC jacks as the camera So if you are using our monitor you will need 1 BNC to F adapter The RG 59 cable can then be screwed into the VIDEO INPUT JACK on the monitor There is another BNC jack on the monitor for VIDEO OUTPUT From here using another cable with a BNC on one end and an RCA adapter on the other end you can plug With total into a VCR or Camcorder to simultaneously watch and record your observations Using this configuration with one of our 850 line high resolution monitors will give the best results from the ASTROVID monochrome CCD the StellaCam ASTROVID Solarcam 11 Once all of the cables and adapters are plugged in you may Provides the most flexibility manual control and large 2 3 inch plug the power supply in and largest field of view possible ASTROVID SolarCcam Camera Controls The use of the separate camera controls will enable the image to gain fine adjustment of the final image It will allow the user to view both solar surface detail and prominences Th
9. inence Again you will find that you need a balance between gain and shutter speeds However this time the gain will be set higher and the shutter speeds will most likely be lower The Solar Hydrogen alpha line is a very narrow wavelength in a more atmospheric stable part of the spectrum The use of slower shutter speeds will not always decrease the resolution of the promi nences The human eye has an incredible response to light in terms of dynamic range The eye can look at ob jects going from black to bright white in the same image A camera cannot do that Cameras have a more limited dynamic range So often with H alpha imaging you will not see the prominences and so lar surface detail at the same time To better view Solar prominences it is often desirable to increase your image scale This involves using a Barlow lens or Powermate from TeleVue A Powermate is a better choice as it is more corrected and will not change your focal point The only drawback here is that in some of the wide field h alpha tele scopes apply a Barlow is not always beneficial However on Solar scopes with already longer focal lengths using a Powermate or Barlow lens is generally beneficial USING FILTERS FOR H ALPHA PROMINENCES l The main filters used for prominences are neutral density filters However in long focal lengths they would be less likely to be used than in short wide field telescopes Again for neutral density filters you can us
10. l Shutter speed and Gamma 6 Start by adjusting the gain and shutter speeds The goal here is to keep the gain as low as possible and to keep the shutter speed as high as possible This is often going to be a slight compromise 7 Once you have adjusted the gain and shutter speed you can then adjust the gamma You can go from low contrast to high contrast Increasing the contrast will show more solar surface detail 8 You can also adjust the impedance to see if it improves the image ore not This is the vertical switch la beled 75 ON OFF 9 To further enhance the image you can see below the section on using filters USING FILTERS TO ENHACE SOLAR SURFACE DETAIL We tested several filter combinations to achieve the best solar surface detail We recommend the following White Light Surface Detail 1 We recommend using the Baader 1 25 inch contrast booster that is mated with the Baader 1 25 inch UVIR blocker 2 You may also use the Baader Solar continuum filter with the Baader UVIR blocker The Baader Solar con tinuum filter also works very well visually 3 You can also use neutral density filters Hydrogen Alpha and Calcium Light Surface Detail 1 We recommend using the Baader 1 25 inch contrast booster that is mated with the Baader 1 25 inch UVIR blocker 2 You may also use the Baader Solar continuum filter with the Baader UVIR blocker The Baader solar con tinuum filter also works very well visually 3 You can also use Blue
11. narrowband 11 The compact size of the Solarcam will allow it to adapt to any size telescope The above information is just a guideline to get you started We invite your comments and feedback and look forward to exploring this new facet of Amateur Astronomy with you We will publish images sent to us on our web page Credit will be given for all items used ADIRONDACK ASTRONOMY 72 Harrison Ave Hudson Falls NY 12839 Order Line 1 877 348 8433 Fax 518 747 4422 Info Line 518 747 4141 www astrovid com e mail astrovid adelphia net 2 ASTROVID SolarCam CCD VIDEO CAMERA CAMERA CONNECTIONS The power supply is to be connected last to prevent any damage to the camera 1 This camera cannot be hooked directly to a television for a picture as it only supplies Baseband or Composite Video 2 Most newer televisions have separate Video In jacks that can be used with this camera 3 Look at the back of the Astrovid SolarCam camera 4 On the back is a 12 pin female jack labeled DC IN The round male metal jack on the black power cord goes into the ASTROVID SolarCam It attaches to the back of the camera s DC IN jack Line up the pins to match the connector be careful in doing this so as not to bend any of the pins within the connector Push in the power cord to lock DO NOT force this connection Not plug in the wall transformer until all of your connections are made 5 Plug in the mini phono plug from th
12. of your telescope It is best to experiment to find the eyepiece than gives you the most detailed image combined with your seeing conditions 6 Orthoscopic eyepieces work well because they tend to have less internal reflection less ghosting and also have fairly flat fields of view Barlow lenses are the BEST way to enlarge images There are no internal reflections and they can be stacked to increase magnification further You will need the 1 25 C adapter for Barlows Lens use 7 The ASTROVID SolarcCam video camera has greatly increased sensitivity to infrared radiation to approximately 1100nm This should not be an issue with narrowband H alpha and Calcium filters These filters to be safe for visual use must block out IR radiation 8 For white light observations we highly recommend the Baader Planetarium Solar Continuum Filter and also the Baader Planetarium Neutral Density filters A Wratten green 56 or green 58 filter can also be substituted These filters will greatly increase the contrast of fine solar surface detail 9 Other filters such as the greens blues and neutral density filter can The ASTROVID SolarCam also be used with H alpha and Calcium Solar filters to get the light to can also be used for full acceptable levels to show fine solar surface structure and lunar disk studies and for Prominence the planets 10 The SolarCam has manual controls that should accommodate any solar imaging Situation including white light and
13. tter speed to the position labeled 0 This is the 1 60 second shutter speed Put the Gain A F M button to the manual position Rotate the M Gain button clockwise to the full 20dB position MS AVA ASTRO CORP 2001 ASTROVID Solarcam CCD VIDEO CAMERA USING YOUR ASTROVID SolarCam Part 2 Solar Surface Detail 1 Point your telescope towards the Sun The easiest way to begin is to find your focus by finding the edge of the sun 2 By initially adjusting the settings as discussed in part 1 the sun should appear overexposed and bright white Once you know the sun is on the screen turn the gain down by rotating the M GAIN button counter clockwise You may have to move the telescope until you find the edge of the sun Once you think you have the edge of the sun you can check it by increasing the shutter speeds This will act to dim the image This is done by rotating the shutter speeds from positions 0 7 3 It is very easy to overexpose the sun using such sensitive cameras So often what looks like the edge of the sun is actually an overexposed over flowing image By decreasing the gain and or increasing the shut ter speeds you should be able to find the edge of the sun 4 Once you have the edge of the sun in focus you can re center the disk of the sun by moving your tele scope 5 When the disk of the sun is on the screen you can start to make adjustments to your image The three ad justments you will make will be the Gain manua
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