Starlight Xpress SXVR-H694C - Manual (Page 2)

Handbook for the SXVR-H694C Issue 1 March 2012
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has an excellent quantum efficiency, with a broad spectral response peaking at around
77% in yellow light, and an extremely low dark current, well below that of any
comparable CCD currently available. While this device also has an excellent blue
light sensitivity, it has a strong infra-red response, which makes it ideal for all aspects
of both planetary and deep-sky imaging, especially with an H-alpha filter. The H-
alpha QE is about 65%, considerably better than other interline chips and even greater
than the popular KAF8300 CCD.
The full-frame download time is approximately 4 seconds and a binned 4x4 download
takes only 0.5 seconds, so finding and centring are very quick and easy in this mode.
Please take a few minutes to study the contents of this manual, which will help you to
get the camera into operation quickly and without problems. I am sure that you want
to see some results as soon as possible, so please move on to the ‘Quick Start’ section,
which follows. A more detailed description of imaging techniques will be found in a
later part of this manual.
‘Quick Starting’ your SXVR-H694C system
In the shipping container you will find the following items:
1) The SXVR-H694C camera head.
2) A universal AC power supply module.
3) A USB camera cable.
4) An adaptor for 1.25” drawtubes, with a 1.25” filter thread.
5) An adaptor for 2” drawtubes and M42 Pentax thread lenses.
6) A guider output to guider port lead.
7) A disk with the SXVR-H694C control software and this manual.
Optional extra items include:
1) A serial port adaptor and cable.
2) An add-on guide camera head.
You will also need a PC computer with Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 installed.
This machine must have at least one USB 2.0 port available and at least 256 Mbytes
of memory. If you intend to view the finished images on its screen, then you will also
need a graphics card capable of displaying an image with a minimum of 1024 x 768
pixels and 24 bit colour. A medium specification Pentium with between 1GHz and
4GHz processor speed is ideal, but I recommend avoiding some of the lower
specification ‘Netbook’ computers, as they can’t really handle the fast data stream
from the camera. Please note that USB 2.0 operates at a very high speed and cannot
operate over very long cables. Five metres of good quality cable is the maximum
normally possible without boosters or extra powered hubs, although you can
sometimes get good results at longer distances with very high quality cables.