Here you can see Santa Barbara Instruments Group (SBIG) ST-2000XM CCD imager. CCD chip in the camera is 2 megapixel Kodak KAI-2020M (1600X1200 pixels). KAI-2020M is an interline sensor. The camera provides temperature regulation for the chip via thermoelectric Peltier cooler that can cool the chip up to 45 C bellow the ambient temperature. In the camera there is also a Texas Instruments TC237H CCD chip. That chip is usually used for self-guiding of the camera. Guiding of the Losmandy GM 8 mount is done via SBIG relay box, since the CCD camera cannot be directly connected to the mount. ST-2000XM is a monochrome camera. The camera is equipped with color filter wheel CFW8a, which is used for taking color images. CFW8a has space for five 1.25" filters. Filters installed in the filter wheel are Astronomik LRGB type IIc filter set for LRGB color imaging and Astronomik H-alpha 13nm filter for narrowband imaging. Change of the filters during the imaging session happens automatically, and is controlled by the imaging software. Imaging SW I use is Software Bisque CCDSoft. |
Update June 2008: I replaced CFW8a with SBIG CFW10 color filter wheel. CFW10 also replaces front plate of the ST2000XM camera and it needs about 10mm less back focus than CFW8a. That is quite important because it enables me to use the ST2000XM / CFW10 combination for taking wide field color images with camera lenses. For camera lens use back focus is critical, because if the CCD chip is too far from the lens it is impossible to focus the lens to infinity. CFW10 has space for ten 1.25" filters, so it can be equipped with sets of both LRGB and narrowband filters. Update November 2008: I replaced Astronomik LRGB filters with Astrodon I series Gen II LRGB filter set. I series filters are designed to match sensitivity characteristic of Kodak interline sensors. I also replaced Ha filter with Astrodon 5nm Ha filter which is parfocal with Astrodon LRGB filters. Unlike some other, Astrodon filters generate almost no halos around bright stars. |