Starlight Xpress SXVR-H18 - Manual

Handbook for the SXVR-H18 Issue 1 March 2010
1
SXVR-H18
CCD camera user manual
Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress CCD camera. We hope that you will be
very satisfied with its performance. The SXVR-H18 is a medium format, high-
resolution cooled CCD camera, especially designed for astronomical imaging. The
SXVR-H18 uses a Kodak KAF8300 ‘Full Frame’ CCD, with
3326(H) X 2504(V)
pixels in a 17.96mm x 13.52mm active area. The use of high performance microlenses
on the CCD surface gives the greatest possible throughput of light to the pixels and
the resulting QE is very good over the entire visible spectrum. Our new ‘R’ type
USB2 interface hardware gives an exceptionally fast download speed of about 2
megapixels per second, and so the SXVR-H18 can download a full resolution 16 bit
image in only 4.5 seconds.
The H18 is unusual in that it is the first SX camera to incorporate a mechanical
shutter. This is required for correct operation of its full-frame CCD chip, but also
permits the user to easily take dark frames when required. However, the mechanical
cycle time does limit the shortest practical exposure time to about 0.05 seconds.