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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013

Handbook for the SX ‘Oculus’ high resolution all-sky camera

Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress ‘Oculus’ all-sky camera. We hope that you will be very

pleased with the performance of this product.

The Oculus is a high resolution, very compact wide-field camera assembly, which is powered and

operated via a single USB2.0 computer connection. It is intended for full-sky monitoring of weather,

meteors, satellites etc. and will provide high quality images and video files, while operating unattended

for long periods. The ‘megapixel’ resolution F/2 fish-eye lens provides horizon to horizon coverage

with very little star image distortion across the entire field.

The Oculus utilises a sensitive Sony ‘SuperHAD’ CCD (the ICX205AL) with an array of 1392 x 1040

pixels in a ‘half-inch’ format. Although the chip is not cooled, it has a very low dark signal and very

little readout noise, so it can be used to image faint stars with a very short exposure time. The small

pixel size and high resolution lens give excellent definition and a good sized screen image format.

A strong polycarbonate hemispherical dome houses the lens assembly and this dome is easily removed

for cleaning, when necessary. A 12v DC input socket is also provided to permit an internal heating

resistor to be powered up to prevent dewing of the lens and dome on humid nights. The entire assembly

comes equipped with a standard tripod bracket for mounting.

The Oculus specification:

 CCD type: ICX205AL Sony SuperHAD interline CCD with low dark current and vertical

anti-blooming.

 CCD Full resolution pixel data: Pixel size: 4.65uM x 4.65uM, Image format: 1392 x 1040

pixels

 CCD Image area: 6.4mm (Horizontal) x 4.75mm (Vertical).

 CCD quality: Grade 1

 Spectral Response: QE max at 520nM (~50%), 30% at 420nM and 670nM.

 Readout Noise: Less than 10 electrons RMS - typically only 7 electrons.

 Full-well capacity: Greater than 15,000 e- (unbinned)

Summary of content (9 pages)

PAGE 1
Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 Handbook for the SX ‘Oculus’ high resolution all-sky camera Thank you for purchasing a Starlight Xpress ‘Oculus’ all-sky camera. We hope that you will be very pleased with the performance of this product. The Oculus is a high resolution, very compact wide-field camera assembly, which is powered and operated via a single USB2.0 computer connection. It is intended for full-sky monitoring of weather, meteors, satellites etc.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013             Anti-blooming: Overload margin greater than 1000x. Dark current: Less than 0.1 electrons/second @ + 10C ambient. Data format: 16 bits. System gain: 0.3 electrons per ADU Lens details: 1.55mm FL F/2 180 degree ‘Fish Eye’ Computer Interface: Built-in USB 2.0 compatible interface. Image download time: Typically 0.6 seconds at full resolution using USB 2.0. Power requirements: Camera is USB powered, dew heater requires 12v at 1 amp max.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 good a view of the sky as possible. If you cannot avoid stray light getting into the field of view, then raising the effective horizon is an option. Starlight can supply a ‘horizon ring’ which slips over the dome retaining ring and which cuts off light from below about 15 degrees above the true horizon. Alternatively, you can construct your own from lightweight metal or plastic sheet.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 a mast or roof. As the camera power is taken from the USB cable, any long leads should be as heavy as possible to reduce the internal resistance. An optimum setup would use a high quality USB extension cable with AWG 20 power cores, plus a short A to mini B cable at the Oculus end. Active cables can work OK, but make sure that the cores are AWG 20.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 Imaging with the Starlight Xpress software With the Oculus connected to the PC, open ‘Oculus_USB.exe’ and find the ‘Set program defaults’ menu under the ‘File’ heading. If this is the first run of the software, you will get a warning about the ‘ini file not found’, but ignore this and click on OK – then open ‘set program defaults’ from the text icon .
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 If this is an initial setting up session, set the ‘Autosave’ to off and select ‘Continuous’ mode. The exposure time for a dark sky can be 20 seconds, or more, but for initial alignment and testing, set 5 seconds and press ‘Take Photo(s)’. You should see a sequence of images on the display and you can experiment with the Oculus orientation and location to get the best views.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 Once the position and focus are good, try running an image sequence in ‘Autosave’ mode. An exposure time of 30 seconds is generally good for basic sky monitoring, but shorter exposures might be better to minimise sky glow when meteor imaging. Set up a suitable number of image frames in the ‘No. of exposures’ box and check the ‘Autosave’ box. Pressing the ‘Take Photo(s)’ button will now start a sequence and save the images as FITS files into your chosen Autosave folder.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 generator will add an image file number at the bottom left of your AVI images and this can be useful when searching for frames that contain interesting events. Some software, such as ‘Windows Media Viewer’, will sometimes hide this legend behind their control slider and so I recommend checking the ‘Frame label offset’ option to shift it up be about 200 lines. You will see that a ‘Hot pixel map’ can be applied to your AVI frames during AVI generation.
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Oculus handbook Issue 2 January 2013 gritty dirt, or you may scratch the plastic. A spare dome is supplied with the Oculus and replacements may also be purchased from our dealers. The Oculus dome is spaced off from the base ring by small pads. This allows air to circulate through the vent holes and inside of the dome, to reduce the tendency for dew to condense on the inner surface. Please ensure that these pads remain in place when removing the dome for cleaning.