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Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
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High Sensitivity Planetary, Lunar and Solar CCD Imaging
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The PX-75C COOLAIR video camera. Left: 0.25" photographic thread. Right: 1.25" nosepiece included.
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- Sensor: 1/3" Sony ICX204 CCD Colour
- Sensor Resolution: 1024(H) x 768(V)
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Frame Rate:
- 20 FPS @ 1024x768
- 40 FPS @ 512x384 ROI
- 60 FPS @ 256x192 ROI
- USB 2.0 Powered
- Hardware Gain
- No Infra Red filter
- Robust aluminium alloy body
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- Suitable for Planetary, Lunar & Solar imaging
- Air-Cooled with internal fan
- Bundled Software:
- Computer Requirements:
- Microsoft Windows (32-bit & 64-bit) XP/Vista/7/8
- USB 2.0 port
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Outline
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The PX-75C is the ideal colour planetary CCD camera that combines high frame rates
with high sensitivity. The PX-75C is also well suited for Lunar and Solar imaging.
Please note that for solar imaging, the camera should be used only with an
appropriate solar telescope or solar filter.
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The PX-75C is particularly well suited for capturing critical type targets including
the International Space Station due to its very low noise characteristics and
unusually high Gain while retaining the necessary high S/N ratios.
The camera is also ideal for industrial inspection and microscopy applications.
Noise reduction, Gain and Region of Interest (ROI) are all features implemented in
the hardware to deliver exceptional performance.
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Image by S. Ota with Opticstar PΧ-35C COOLAIR.
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Noise Reduction and Cooling
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Thermal noise is kept to a minimum via a heat-sink that is directly attached to
the back of the Sony CCD sensor and a fan that that draws the heat out of the
camera fast. Enclosed camera cases will typically show temperatures of around
10ºC above ambient temperature, these can rise dramatically during extended exposures.
Air-cooled cameras such as the PX-75C will show internal temperatures of around
3ºC above ambient temperature under normal use, thermal noise halves for every 6 degrees
of drop in temperature which means that a similar non air-cooled camera with have
over twice the noise of the PX-75C during shorter exposures.
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The cooling mechanism consists of a heat-sink and a fan.
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Performance
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The PX-75C requires a fully featured, full speed USB2.0 port to take advantage of
all the camera’s advanced features.
The PX-75C CoolAir fan-cooled CCD camera offers exceptional performance and versatility
easily outperforming cameras costing considerably more. The PX-75C electronics ensure
high signal-to-noise ratio even at very short exposure times. The camera can achieve
20 frames per second at the full 1024x768 resolution. The maximum frame rate depends
on the ROI mode set and it can be as high as 60 frames per second.
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Opticstar View - Camera Control Software
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The camera is recommended for lunar and solar (with a solar filter) imaging.
It includes Opticstar View software for image capture and camera control
with a point and click interface. It can capture single frames, a series of
single frames in BMP format or in AVI video format. The captured video data
can optionally be compressed if required in MPEG-4 format.
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Opticstar View for camera control and image processing.
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A brief outline of View’s image processing functions is listed below:
- Basic operations including Crop, Mirror, Flip, Invert, Rotate, Bright, etc.
- Copy and paste user defined regions.
- Distances can be measured between user defined points, circles, etc.
- Angles can be calculated by defining three points on the image.
- Operations can be performed on any user defined region.
- Colour operations can be performed on individual R, G, B channels.
- Data combine of two images.
- Data calibration.
- Image-zoom as a per cent of the original image.
- Linear filters to soften, sharpen, emboss, blur and Gaussian.
- Non-linear filters for median, erode, dilate, contour, edge and jitter.
- Transform filters for pinch, punch, twirl and cylinder.
- Fluorescence filters for gamma, colorize, mix and combine.
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EtAMCAP - Camera Control Software
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EtAMCAP is the second program bundled with the camera. It can be used to control the camera
and capture video in AVI format. This program does not include any image processing functionality
but the captured video files can be processed in other software such as Deep Sky Stacker,
Registax, Paintshop, Photoshop, etc.
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EtAMCAP camera control software.
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Image Quality
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The PX-75C camera can stream and store video to disk at up to 20 frames per second
at 1024x768 resolution, it can also grab single frames at 1024x768. All video and
single frames are captured without compression, ensuring high image quality.
Higher frame rates can be achieved by reducing the resolution via the camera control software.
The ability of the camera to capture and store high quality video to disk in real-time
provides the data required for stacking any number of frames to create a single greatly
enhanced quality image using image stacking software, these include the excellent
AstroArt and freely available
Deep Sky Stacker or
Registax.
AstroArt is more relevant when you want to manipulate the image but without altering
the underlying data, AstroArt is therefore highly suitable for photometry.
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Options
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Optionally, the PX-75C incorporates a removable x0.5 focal reducer nosepiece that can double
the field of view if required. An extension 5 metre USB lead with a USB repeater (amplifier)
is also available in cases where the camera will be used further away from the computer.
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Specification
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| Model |
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR |
| Sensor |
Sony ICX204AK |
| Optical Format |
1/3" CCD colour sensor |
| Resolution |
1024(W) x 768(H) |
| Pixel Size |
4.65µm x 4.65µm |
| Sensitivity |
400mV max @ 1/30 accumulation maximum (Gain off) |
| Colour Bayer RGB Mosaic |
24-bit (3 x 8-bit) Uncompressed output |
| Frame Rate |
20fps @ 1024x768
40fps @ 512x384 ROI
60fps @ 256x192 ROI
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| Shutter |
Electronic Rolling |
| Window glass |
Clear, no Infra Red cut-off |
| Exposure Time |
Automatic or Manual; 1ms to 3s |
| ADC |
8-bit |
| Cooling |
Heat sink and fan |
| Gain |
in hardware, user selectable from 0% to >100% boost |
| Computer Interface |
USB 2.0 with 1.8 metre cable |
| Power Requirement |
USB 2.0 Bus Power |
| Mounting to telescope |
C/CS to 1.25" (included) |
| Mounting to lens |
C to T-thread, M42 x 0.75 |
| Mounting to microscope |
C to 23mm, C to 30mm, C to 30.5mm |
| Weight |
250 grams |
| Bundled software |
Opticstar View, etAMCAP |
| Data Format |
AVI video with or wihthout MPEG compression; BMP |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows (64-bit & 32-bit) XP/Vista/7/8 |
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All information correct at the time of writing.
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Opticstar PX-35 COOLAIR & PX-75 COOLAIR Sample Images
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Please click on the images below to expand to their full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter (2 image sequence).
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter (4 image sequence).
Captured by S. Ota, Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by K., Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by K., Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Jupiter.
Captured by K., Japan.
Opticstar PX-35C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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The Moon.
Captured by Naoki Yokoo, Japan.
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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The Moon.
Captured by Naoki Yokoo, Japan.
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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The Moon.
Captured by Naoki Yokoo, Japan.
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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The Moon.
Captured by Naoki Yokoo, Japan.
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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The Moon.
Captured by Naoki Yokoo, Japan.
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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The Moon.
Captured by Naoki Yokoo, Japan.
Opticstar PX-75C COOLAIR
Click to expand to full size.
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Notice
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We are constantly checking the accuracy of the technical data. We are prepared to provide
more detailed information on request. Technical data is subject to change without notice.
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