Luna 0 - lunatico.es
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1. minutes If we combine them later the results will be surprising A slightly more sophisticated method consists on taking an image of for example 1 minute check the values of the interesting pixels the nucleus in a galaxy the brightest zone in nebulae holding your mouse cursor over them and calculating the exposure time approximately In case the galaxy nucleus has got pixels with 5000 ADUs value with a camera of 65535 pixels 16bit just as ours we could expose the film 6 or 7 times that length without burning the nucleus Though simple this is a rather practical and useful approach to start Experience and practise will show you the best way to act Very long exposures are risky in any case as an accidental hit in the mount a guiding failure or a plane passing over the image all are common problems that can make our effort useless It is recommended to do exposures of such a length that removing one doesn t mean to have lost a clear night Everyone has his own preferences depending on his mount the brightness of the sky etc We recommend to start with short exposures 1 or 2 minutes and increase them as we control the equipment With 5 10 or 15 minute exposures you can obtain outstanding results The process to program these exposures is the same one that we followed for 1 minute shots increasing the number of images count The images will be recorded in the disk in the selected folder and with the chosen nam2. the images are dirty with strange patterns Humidity condensation Remove the humidity in the way explained in section 7 2 If you have any trouble not included in this short guide or if you want to get some advice or to make any suggestions please contact us trough Lunatico Astronomia forum in yahoo groups the forum is called LunaticoAstronomia There is a link in our website www lunatico es to contact easily the forum Manual Luna 0 4 B Enjoy your camera 08 junio 2007
3. Luna 0 4B user s manual You have just purchased a Luna Camera thank you very much for choosing a Lunatico product Lunatico Astronomia hopes the camera will fulfil your expectations Manual Luna 0 4 B 1 08 junio 2007 INDEX 1 Introduction 2 Contents 3 Installation 3 1 Driver and software installation 3 2 Connecting to the computer and telescope 3 3 Image at home 4 First images CCDCap 4 1 Focusing 4 2 First astronomic image 5 Other programs 6 Specifications 7 Getting the most of your camera 7 1 Software 7 2 Refrigeration and humidity 7 3 Gain and offset adjusting 8 Common problems and solutions Manual Luna 0 4 B N 08 junio 2007 1 Introduction Please note before connecting the camera to your computer you should install the software as explained on point 3 1 Your camera is a highly specialized device designed for astronomical photography Thanks to its high sensitivity the camera is able to take high quality images of every kind of astronomical objects even if by its size it s specially well suited to image galaxies planetary nebulae and other not very extended objects With its low cost and as it includes an autoguider port it is also a very good option to autoguide your mount the high sensitivity of the camera will make finding suitable stars a really simple task as they will available in almost every field of view 2 Contents Along wit
4. REVIEW Sequence Capture Expo 100 ba Make Exposure s Make AVI Idle 98 154 43176 GAIN 80 OFFSET 120 Let s select the English Language if it is not already done ms Resolution Zoom Language About e English Francais Nederlands Deutsch Espanol For this initial test first thing to do is to adjust the values of gain and offset using the Sliders located in the upper left zone of the screen Gain should be set at approximately 80 offset up to 120 the actual exact values can be checked in the status line of the application at the bottom right side Manual Luna 0 4 B Qo JUNIO Z00 eco kc ut File Capture Files Options Resolution Zoom Language About Auto Expo STOP PREVIEW Sequence Capture Count Make Exposure s Make AVI 213 153 43176 GAIN 80 IOFFSET 120 On the side bar on the option Preview configuration we slide the bar to select an exposure time of about 100ms CCDCap is constantly taking images of this length as long as we don t press Stop preview Preview Settings 100 ms T3828 ed te E358 00002 FER COCA ARTE r Auto Expo STOP PREVIEW We should not worry if the image we see has a lower resolution than expected CCDCap will have selected a binning mode see further on Being not focused on anything the image will be totally blurred We should now focus in checking th
5. and the computer communicate correctly and we can start taking astronomical images 4 First astronomical images CCDCap This section is specially written for people with no previous experience with CCD cameras so it could be too detailed for advanced users Please note if we are going to use a different computer from the one we made the first indoors images with we must install the camera software before connecting it First turn on the PC and uncover the telescope then couple the camera to the eyepiece holder Connect everything and set correctly the cables and finally point to the sky 4 1 Focusing Reaching focus can be difficult and frustrating for the first time but once you have managed to do it once it will be much easier to do it again we may even need an extender 2 male to 2 female for example mostly in today s compact refractors In Newton telescopes the most common problem is normally the opposite we need the focuser to be shorter a 2 low profile adaptor may be helpful Fortunately almost all telescope models currently for sale are designed and engineered to work with CCD cameras and we ll be able to find an adaptor combination which will allow us to focus For this first time it is highly recommended to point the telescope to a very bright star magnitude 2 or less you can also point to an area rich in stars any nebulosity point in the Milky Way can be very suitable Depending on the size of
6. at the image shown in the window changes as we cover and uncover the camera In normal light conditions the image will be totally white with the camera uncovered and dark with it covered but for this you should previously disable the automatic contrast that CCDCap provides Manual Luna 0 4 B 8 08 junio 2007 Avg 16607 3 StdDev 2326 3 We click on the icon where a histogram is shown the one further down the left bar and we see Histogram Histogram Stretch Auto Black White We must uncheck the boxes Histogram Stretch and Auto Black White as shown in the image Having the histogram on the screen we can use it to confirm the communication camera computer as the red lines in the histogram must move left with the camera totally dark and totally right with the camera illuminated It is very likely than the image shown is too noisy this is because it is selected by default in the high speed download If we click on the Options menu and we disable the high speed download although the result will continue to be basically noise the artifacts due to the high speed download will disappear ip V1 2 ure Files Options Resolution Zoom Language About w Highspeed Download Hot Cold Pixels GAIN Optics Configuration Horizontal Flip oon Auto Resume Preview Invert Image a ua uS wj IFFSET Manual Luna 0 4 B 9 08 junio 2007 After this point we have for sure that the camera
7. der to avoid any trouble we want to insist nevertheless that this is only necessary in cases of extreme humidity and with the cooling connected In case you needed to open the camera please contact us before doing it 7 3 Gain and offset adjusting This adjusting is only necessary or recommendable if you are going to take long exposure images with the camera Using it for autoguiding makes the adjusting irrelevant In the last case it is enough to select a gain and an offset high enough as to detect stars that are suitable for guiding Every CCD sensor is slightly different The Luna 4 0 B camera allows the user to adjust with the help of the software the gain similar to the ISO in traditional cameras and the offset an energy level added to the signals read of the camera Although this supposes an extra work there is only necessary to make an adjusting for camera and binning mode 2 in our case one for 1x1 binning and another for 2x2 In fact being 1x1 the mode with the biggest resolution it would be enough in 90 of cases to adjust 1x1 and let these values fixed The gain entails the most subjective part the bigger it be the more amplified the signal will be but so will the noise We recommend to begin with the maximum gain and reduce it step by step in case we think there is too much noise In order to adjust the gain we will cover totally the sensor avoiding the light to enter and we will allow the CCDCap to download i
8. e followed by the sequence number If the name was for example M51 test the created files will be M51 test_00001 FIT M51 test_00002 FIT and so on 5 Other software The CCDCap software enclosed in this camera though friendly and easy to use does neither include tools for further processing of the images nor guiding utilities The plugin modules for Maxim DL and AstroArt 4 0 are included with the camera so if you are an user of this programs you can employ them with the Luna 0 4 camera to guide capture process They are in the folder plugins of the CD ROM There are many programs for processing images some of them freely available in internet DeepSkyStacker and Iris may be the most popular and with both of them you can combine and process the images you took with this camera You can also download free autoguiding software we already found out news about this camera s support in guidemaster software Manual Luna 0 4 B 14 08 junio 2007 6 Specifications eEfective pixels 752 582 440kpixels ePixel size 6 5um 6 25um eQuantum efficiency 65 at 580nm eExposure times 1 1000sec to 10000sec e16 bit AD Conversor 0 65535 ADU eTE cooling 30C below ambient power requirements lt 2A eUSB 2 0 High speed eDownload speeds 600kpixel s normal 6Mpixel s fast preview and live video mode eBinning 1x1 2x2 eStandard autoguiding port 6 pin RJ12 eReadout noise 7 to 10 e sec at 600kpixel s eAnti Bloo
9. h the camera you should have received An USB 2 0 cable to connect the camera to the computer A flat autoguider cable ST4 compatible RJ12 Acar lighter adaptor TEC power supply ATto 1 adapter A CD ROM with the software and this handbook The warning Read before use Atight case for the camera and its accessories except if you have bought it as a part of a set with another camera if so there will be only one case bigger for the whole set If you find something is missing please contact Lun tico Astronom a as soon as possible 3 Installation 3 1 Driver and software installation The software needed to operate the camera is included in the CD ROM for Microsoft Windows If the installation program does not start automatically after the CD is inserted please browse the disc and launch the LunaO 4b Install program The installation program will guide you through the rest of the process 3 2 Connecting to the computer and telescope The cables should be connected as explained below 08 junio 2007 uo Manual Luna 0 4 B TEC supply USB Autoguiding cable In order to use the camera the only essential cable is the USB it must be a good quality cable full rated such as the one included too long or too thin cables are not able to carry enough power for the camera to operate The plug labelled TEC supply is used to power the cooling system 12v DC less than 2A positive in
10. ly from version to version but the basic procedure is as follows a No do not connect to Windows Update b Yes Automatic installation C Yes proceed with the Automatic installation even if the driver is not signed or the Microsoft Logo Compliance test has not been passed This driver installation procedure will happen twice as there are two devices to be installed the camera itself and the USB controller Once the driver is successfully installed we can launch the CCDCap program selecting it from the desktop where we will find a new icon When it starts up a window similar to the following will be shown the actual version may change CCDCap V1 2 Select Camera Type e Scan for 3 3Mpix camera A Scan for 0 4 Mpix camera o6 Scan For 6 0Mpix camera Scan for CMOS Guider X Cancel Manual Luna 0 4 B n 08 junio 2007 Selecting the correct camera model 0 4 Mpix camera the program will look for an attached camera After finding the camera it will show the following screen CCDCap V1 2 Select Camera Click Connect 4 QHY6 Device 0 X Cancel With the cameras of the selected kind it found Just click on the camera QHY6 matches with Luna 0 4B see point 7 and CCDCap will connect and show its main screen Manual Luna 0 4 B 6 08 junio 2007 E ccpcap v1 2 iced File Capture Files Options Resolution Zoom Language About Settings Preview Settings 100 ms Auto Expo STOP P
11. mages with short exposure times 100ms or less the adjusting will be easier Always using the slow download mode With the chosen gain we adjust the offset until we get pixel values closer to 0 but always over it this way we wont waste the dynamic range possible pixel values of the camera In case the gain varies whatever the reason be we should adjust the offset again in order to have an optimal behaviour 8 Common problems and solutions Manual Luna 0 4 B 16 08 junio 2007 PROBLEM POSIBLE REASON SOLUTION The image shown is completely black The contrast or the gain and the offset are wrong Select high contrast in the histogram If the trouble continues adjust the gain and offset values see section 7 3 The image is very noisy Several Probably the download mode is fast disabling it the quality will highly increase If not adjust the gain and offset values 7 3 The computer doesn t recognize the camera Low quality USB cable Change the cable for the one supplied for the camera The CCDCap program stops answering Several Disconnect the camera from the computer only unplug the USB cable and close the program Connect the camera again and restart the program The images shown by the CCDCap are smaller that expected Zoom or binning Make sure that the 2x2 binning is not selected and that the image shows a 100 resolution When activating the cooling
12. ming 115dB eGain 0 5e ADU to 0 1e ADU eT2 thread M42x0 75 Filter thread M28 5x0 5 Size 60 60 45mm 7 Making the most of your Luna 0 4 B 7 1 Software This camera official software is supplied by Astrosoft Belgium from its website www astrsoft be Astrosoft also has a support forum and so does Lun tico Astronom a there is a link from www lunatico es and we will publish new versions of our software and will review our handbooks Luna 0 4 B has been designed and manufactured according to the specifications agreed between Lun tico and the manufacturer by QHY Astronomy It is convenient to know the manufacturer name for the camera which is QHY6 in case you require other software or go searching for more information in internet 7 2 Refrigeration and humidity Manual Luna 0 4 B 15 08 junio 2007 The cooling system makes the camera to be usually under 0 C In order to avoid a frost film on the sensor it incorporates a tight body and a cold finger Only in cases of extreme humidity the camera can show humidity problems in that case please follow these steps 1 Cut off the cooling power supply 2 Insert in the purpose made hole with a black rubber lid on the side of the camera a bag of drying silica gel put carefully the lid back 3 Wait for two hours until humidity has been absorbed Because this means to abandon the photographic session we recommend you to insert the drying in or
13. n Zoom Language 1x1 NVBE l 1x1 VBE a 2x2 In this image binning 2x2 has been selected we must select 1x1 NVBE VBE Venetian Blind Effect and NVBE No Venetian Blind Effect activate or deactivate a system to remove the effect produced for the camera reading in very fast images except in exceptional occasions such as planetary images we will always work in NVBE We click on Capture images this time it will only be one image and after a minute we will see the result on the screen First sequence of images In order to obtain good images we should take long exposures that of course depends on the object but the number of amateur images exceeding one night of combined exposure is increasing It is neither possible not practical to take one single image of many hours of exposure so we should take several shorter exposures and then combine them with the appropriate software There is not single recipe to determine how long we should expose for every object that depends on the telescope focal ratio and on the noise light pollution and electronic camera noise on the sensitivity of the camera the use of filters and over all on the results we want to obtain In case we have autoguiding the exposures can be as long as we want always avoiding Manual Luna 0 4 B 13 08 junio 2007 them to be blurred saturated in digital words Up until you became an expert it is worthwhile to work with images of 1 or 2
14. r user s guide but you can get some information in internet looking in google com for example We continue focusing until we have the image of the star or stars on the field of the smallest size possible Apart from the size the number of stars is also important the more we can see the better Once focused it is convenient to mark the point on the focuser with a permanent marker or measure it with a ruler This will help us focus the following times as we ll start very close to the right focus If we have significantly moved the focuser the balance point of the telescope mount may have been misplaced so it is advisable to rebalance the telescope in the mount once focused 4 2 First astronomical image Once we are satisfied with the focusing we are ready to take our first image a nebula or a bright galaxy could be a good start We point the telescope we do a test image 5 seconds 5000 ms which is the maximum in the preview mode should be more than enough to detect the object in binning mode Binnig is the name of the combination of several pixels Binnig 1x1 means that every physical pixel of Manual Luna 0 4 B 11 08 junio 2007 2x2 the image shown will be 376x291 pixels and we will verify that the object is in the field if it is not we are facing one of the hardest troubles than a CCD photographer suffers The only way to solve it is to apply a well aligned goto system if available and lo
15. side This supply is not needed if the camera is being used for autoguiding but is extremely useful when using it for long exposures as main camera Last the autoguiding port allows the camera to send corrections to the mount during an imaging session It will be thus connected between the camera and an identical plug in the mount for mounts with non standard autoguiding ports such as Vixen mounts with SkySensor 2000 or Takahashi there are readily available converters please contact your personal dealer or Lun tico Astronom a Coupling the camera to the scope is very easy just thread the supplied 1 1 4 adaptor in the camera and then insert it as if it were an eyepiece To avoid problems and damaged equipment all wires and cables should be driven all the way from the scope to the floor using twisters or some other means Don t forget to allow for the scope movement focus etc Manual Luna 0 4 B 4 08 junio 2007 3 3 Image at home The very first image should be taken indoors in order to test the communication between camera and computer To do so we ll connect the camera to the computer as explained before neither needing to couple the telescope nor the cooling or the autoguiding please remember before connecting the camera to the computer you should install the software The first time the camera is connected to the PC Windows will inform us it has detected a new device The actual messages may change slight
16. the CCD chip and telescope focal length using a flip mirror system can be advisable to make sure that the star is in the camera field of view In most of cases a well aligned finder may be enough It is also a good idea not to use narrow band filters until we find it easy to work with the camera The eyepieces focus point is further out the focuser travel than the CCD cameras So as a start point we should place the focuser about 1 further inside the point we would focus with an eyepiece Then we will start up CCDCap select our camera and the program will automatically download images in preview mode which is the most suitable to focus For higher security we can select an exposure time of 500 ms and now with the histogram tool we can check high contrast If everything is right we will see on the screen a circular spot on the unfocused image of Manual Luna 0 4 B 10 08 junio 2007 the star or star field In this image we are getting closer to the focus point from left to right If the spot doesn t appear we must move the focuser slow and patiently until it appears watching the computer screen that will go on showing us images If lots of stars instead of only one appeared it would mean that the brightest star is not on the field but many others of bigger magnitude are being shown The idea when focusing is to get the smallest possible diameter of the stars a handbook on focusing is out of the reach of ou
17. ts of patience specially if we have no goto system With the object on field we centre it slow motion controls on the mount we select a name and a folder for the file we are going to create Preview Settings 100 ms Escritor Auto Expo Ec Mis documentos Expo Guardar en Dm o 2 Any DvD IC cedeap2 Documentos Clone DVD recientes c DeBayer 3 SExefeten Disoplut D lapiz chs e Snewnew Snewweb 800 O ghy8ccdlab ya ahys tests ot IS dark luna04 2 60sec FIT S dark luna04b DOO00 FIT dark luna04b DOO03 FIT gt dark luna04b_10s FIT gt dark luna04b_605 FIT gt dark luna04b_300s FIT B dark luna04b_300s sinrefr FIT S Luna60 fit m81342b fit gt Prueba _00001 FIT B vi eteoghy8 fit amp eke Cs Mi PC Otochris Count nO ji C i Make Exposure s Mis sitios de red Nombre Make AVI Tipo and we program 1 minute of exposure time Guardar Cancelar GAIN 80 OFFSET 120 the camera will be read and shown individually in binning 2x2 every group of 4 in the camera will show only one in the final image and so on Manual Luna 0 4 B 08 junio 2007 Sequence Capture Expo t ms eg Count i Make Exposure s Make AVI Be careful not to forget selecting s for seconds instead of ms for milliseconds in binning 1x1 Options Resolutio
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