IMX455 based SBIG camera?

Private message sent. Stay tuned... when we announce something, we're pretty sure you will really like it.

 

Currently building prototype #2.

 

The new design is cylindrical.

 

Don't have final details yet. Things keep coming up that slow down the project. This week our office is in the middle of a disaster zone and has no power.

We are making good progress though. We're working on the firmware for the (hopefully) final prototype.

 

Prototype is on my desk undergoing testing. Getting close.

 

Though we haven't formally announced it yet, we did bring the new SBIG Aluma AC455 to NEAF.

We still have to finish the firmware and run our standard suite of performance tests, so we're not ready to release the full specifications yet. I can give you some preliminary details.

We are using a 10 Gigabit per second SPF+ fiber Ethernet interface for this camera. It provides a very fast interface with an extremely lightweight, flexible, and EMI-proof cable that eliminates the onerous cable length limitations of USB 3.0. Off-the-shelf adapters are available for Thunderbolt, RJ-45, and PCI-e interfaces.

The camera reads out the 61 megapixel, 16-bit sensor in 0.25 seconds, and it takes 0.26 seconds to download to the PC (if your machine can keep up!). It is supported through our standard DL Imaging drivers, and ASCOM is supported.

The optical interface is the same as our other Aluma AC models (and legacy STX / STXL models). The camera is directly compatible with our ultra-slim AFW series filter wheels. I recommend the AFW-10-50SQ model (the AFW-10-50R will also work but will vignette the corners slightly). The AFW wheel is controlled directly from the camera and also operates as its dark frame shutter.

When will it be available? I don't want to promise yet, but we're getting close. As soon as we sign off for production we'll put it live on our web site.

 

Sorry you weren't able to come. Colin was there, but I didn't make it myself - caught COVID just before the show! (I'm fine now.)

The pixel size thing with CMOS cameras is a matter of some debate. The thing that makes oversampling more tolerable is the very low read noise of these sensors. That means spreading the photons out over more pixels doesn't degrade your SNR nearly as much.

You can bin, but with these chips all binning is digital. With a read noise of about 2.1 electrons, 2x2 binning results in total noise of 4.2 electrons. That's still better than most CCDs. Even with 3x3 binning you're looking at 6.3 e-, which is still on a par with decent CCD cameras.

My recommendation would be to image at full resolution, then calibrate, align and stack, and do your initial processing. The oversampling will make the interpolation for alignment just a little cleaner. Once you have a good raw image you can downsize to taste for reasonable sampling / image size.

Based on our current (and upcoming) product line, I would in general make the following recommendations based on application:

• Photometry:
  1. Aluma CCD47-10 (Best sensitivity, best dynamic range, big pixels)
  2. Aluma AC2020BSI (Excellent sensitivity)
  3. STC-428-P (Lower cost but sensitive and extremely stable, plus includes filter wheel supporting standard filters)
• Space surveillance, supernova hunting, etc.:
  1. Aluma AC4040BSI (Highest sensitivity, 9 um pixels)
  2. Aluma AC4040FSI (Lower cost, lower dark current, less fixed pattern than BSI, and still has very good sensitivity)
  3. Aluma AC2020BSI (Lowest cost, smaller pixels, smaller field but extremely sensitive and low noise)
• Pretty pictures:
  1. Aluma AC455 (Large field, very sensitive, clean images)
  2. STC-7 (Great value package with built-in filter wheel and 7 filters worth $700 included in the package. Great sensitivity and clean images.)
     
  3. Aluma CCD694 (Probably the most underrated camera in our product line! Very sensitive and very clean images. Chosen for the Dragonfly Array because of its incredible performance. If you're pushing to extreme sensitivity limits this camera blows the doors off its CMOS competitors.)
  4. Aluma CCD8300 (The venerable KAF-8300 is back! A bunch of sensors were left over from an OEM project, so we are making them available again.)

 

Production boards have been built, and we're working on finishing up the firmware.

 

FYI, I haven't seen any evidence of random pattern banding in the prototype. I can't speak to saturated stars yet, but hope to get it on a telescope shortly.