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Opticstar PX-137C COOLAIR
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Top-of-the-Range Planetary, Lunar and Solar Video Camera
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The PX-137C COOLAIR video camera. Left: 0.25" photographic thread. Right: 1.25" nosepiece included.
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- 1/3" Sony IMX035 Exmor CMOS Colour
- Sensor Resolution: 1280(H) x 1038(V)
- Quantum Efficiency: 76% @ 500nm
- Read out noise: 3e-
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Frame Rate:
- 25 FPS @ 1280x1038
- 50 FPS @ 668x512
- USB 2.0 Powered
- Hardware Gain
- No Infra Red filter
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- Ideal for Planetary, Lunar & Solar imaging
- Robust aluminium alloy body
- Air-Cooled with internal fan
- Bundled Software:
- Computer Requirements:
- Microsoft Windows (32-bit & 64-bit) XP/Vista/7/8/10
- USB 2.0 port
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Opticstar PX-137C COOLAIR
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Outline
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The PX-137C is a scientific grade colour sCMOS camera that combines high frame rates
with extremely high sensitivity and unusually low noise. The PX-137C is very well suited
for planetary, Lunar and Solar imaging where an appropriate solar telescope or solar filter
is required. The PX-137C CoolAir fan-cooled camera offers exceptional value for money in
terms of performance and versatility.
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Capturing critical detail with the PX-137C is now possible due the sensor's unique
characteristics and high quality camera electronics that keep electronic noise at minimal
levels. With an exposure range of 1ms to 60 seconds the camera can also be used for
introductory deep sky imaging. For longer exposures thermal noise is significantly reduced
due to the camera’s built-in active air-cooling subsystem.
The camera's wide dynamic range makes it ideal for imaging demanding targets including planets,
the Sun and the International Space Station among others. The PX-137M camera is also ideal
for industrial inspection and microscopy applications.
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Image by Gary Palmer with Opticstar PΧ-137 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 sCMOS sensor and a low vibration fan that draws the heat out of the camera.
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-137C 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-137C during longer 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-137C requires a fully featured, full speed USB2.0 port to take advantage of all
the camera's advanced features. The camera boasts a large Well Capacity of 15,000 e~
typically present in higher quality CCD sensors. The camera offers two modes of
operation 1280x1038 and 668x512 resolutions. The PX-137C electronics in combination
with the on-board sCMOS sensor ensure high signal-to-noise ratio even at very short
exposure times.
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Demonstrating the high quantum efficiency (QE) of the PX-137's Sony IMX035 (1/3") sensor against high
performance Sony ICX618 (1/4") CCD sensor. The PX-137 has higher sensitivity, five times higher resolution
and twice the sensor size for twice the field of view.
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Image Quality
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The PX-137C camera can stream and store high quality video to disk at up to 50 frames per
second at 668x512 resolution or at 25 frames per second at 1280x1030 resolution, it can
also grab single frames. All video and single frames are captured without compression,
ensuring high image quality.
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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ISCapture - Camera Control Software
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The camera is bundled with ISCapture software for image capture and camera control
with a point and click interface. It can capture single frames in AVI video format as well
as single frames. The captured video data can optionally be compressed if required
in MPEG-4 format. ISCapture includes functions for image processing and image measurements.
It can also be used for a wide range of applications including microscopy.
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ISCapture for camera control and image processing.
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A brief outline of ISCapture'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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Optional Accessories
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Optionally, the PX-137C can accept a removable focal reducer that can significantly increase the
field of view or an image amplifier that will substantially increase image size, relevant when
imaging at high magnifications. The Opticstar Photo-visual Focal Reducer will triple the camera's
field of view (x0.33) where the Opticstar Imaging Focal Reducer will offer focal reductions between
x0.46 and x0.73.
The Opticstar Planetary Imaging Kit on the other hand will offer magnifications between x1.7 and x3.85
and is well suited for imaging the planets, moon and Sun with a suitable Solar filter.
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-137C COOLAIR |
| Sensor |
Sony IMX035 Exmor Scientific CMOS colour |
| Optical Format |
1/3" |
| Resolution |
1280(W) x 1038(H) |
| Pixel Size |
3.63µm x 3.63µm |
| Quantum Efficiency |
76% @ 500nm |
| Analogue-to-Digital Converter |
12-bit ADC, full 4096 range |
| Colour Bayer RGB Mosaic |
8-bit or 16-bit uncompressed output |
| Read-out noise |
3e- (RMS) |
| Dynamic Range |
4500:1 (Gain 1X) |
| Frame Rate |
25fps @ 1280x1038
50fps @ 668x512
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| Shutter |
Electronic Rolling |
| Window glass |
Clear, no Infra Red cut-off |
| Exposure Time |
Automatic or Manual; 1 millisecond to 1 minute |
| 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 |
ISCapture, etAMCAP |
| Data Format |
AVI video with or wihthout MPEG compression; BMP |
| Computer requirements |
Microsoft Windows (64-bit & 32-bit) XP/Vista/7/8/10; USB 2.0 port |
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All information correct at the time of writing.
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Opticstar PX-137, PX-35 & 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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The Sun.
Captured by Gary Palmer, England.
Opticstar PX-137 COOLAIR, Solamax II 90
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Gary Palmer, England.
Opticstar PX-137 COOLAIR, Solamax II 90
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Gary Palmer, England.
Opticstar PX-137 COOLAIR, Solamax II 90
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Gary Palmer, England.
Opticstar PX-137 COOLAIR, Solamax II 90
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Gary Palmer, England.
Opticstar PX-137 COOLAIR, Solamax II 90
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Gary Palmer, England.
Opticstar PX-137 COOLAIR, Solamax II 90
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Thomas Wakefield, England.
Opticstar PX-137M COOLAIR, Solamax II 60
Click to expand to full size.
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The Sun.
Captured by Thomas Wakefield, England.
Opticstar PX-137M COOLAIR, Solamax II 60
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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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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