Anthony's Astrophotography

As per my review of the EQ6 Pier from AstroShop I have been selling some of my equipment to start stepping up in the capabilities of the equipment I use, this included my Orion Awesome Auto Guider kit and GStar EX mono camera. I was simply carrying too much load on my mount and was also having issues balancing my set up with three scopes attached.

In replacement of the Orion Awesome Auto Guider and GStar was the Starlight Express LodeStar Guider. This camera is very similar to the GStar in sensitivity but a lot smaller and is compatible with many guiding software platforms such as PHD. This allowed me to remove one of the scopes from my mount and lighten the load a little.

It came packaged very well in a blue plastic case holding the Driver/Software CD, USB Cables, ST4 Cable and naturally the camera.

Specifications:

• CCD type: ICX429AL Sony Exview interline CCD with low dark current and vertical anti-blooming.
• CCD Full resolution Pixel data: Pixel size: 8.2uM x 8.4uM, Image format: 752 x 580 pixels
• CCD Image area: 6.4mm (Horizontal) x 4.75mm (Vertical).
• CCD quality: Grade 1
• Spectral Response: QE max at 620nM (~65%), 35% at 400nM and 770nM.
• Readout Noise: Less than 15 electrons RMS – typically only 10 electrons.
• Full-well capacity: Greater than 50,000 e- (unbinned)
• Anti-blooming: Overload margin greater than 1000x.
• Dark current: Dark frame saturation time greater than 1 hour. Less than 0.1 electrons/second @ + 10C ambient.
• Data format: 16 bits.
• System gain:  0.9 electrons per ADU
• Computer Interface: Built-in USB 2.0 compatible interface.
• Image download time: Typically 0.2 seconds at full resolution using USB 2.0.
• Power requirements: USB powered.
• Cooling system: Ambient air cooling.
• Size: 32 x 72mm black anodised aluminium barrel with 25 x 0.75mm ‘C mount’ thread at the CCD window end & input/output plugs at rear.
• Weight: approx. 50g.

Some images of the camera below, as you can see this is very small and light.