Section 1 - Introduction
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1. Introduction
Congratulations and thank you for buying one of Santa Barbara Instrument Group's CCD cameras.
The model ST-7XE/XME, ST-8XE, ST-9XE, ST-10XE/XME, and ST-2000XM/XCM are SBIG's fifth
generation CCD cameras and represent the state of the art in CCD camera systems with their low
noise and advanced capabilities, including Kodak's new Blue Enhanced E series of CCDs and high
speed USB interface. We feel that these cameras will expand your astronomy experience by being
able to easily take images like the ones you've seen in books and magazines, of structure never seen
through the eyepiece. SBIG CCD cameras offer convenience, high sensitivity, and advanced image
processing techniques that film just can't match. While CCDs will probably never replace film in its
large format, CCDs allow a wide range of scientific measurements and have established a whole
new field of amateur astronomy that is growing by leaps and bounds.
These cameras include several exciting new features: improved self-guiding (US Patent
5,525,793), high speed USB interface, improved cooling design and more. These cameras have two
CCDs inside, one for guiding and a large one for imaging. The low noise of the read out electronics
virtually guarantees that a usable guide star will be within the field of the guiding CCD for
telescopes with F/numbers F/6.3 or faster. The new cooling design is capable of performance
similar to that which used to require an optional second stage cooling booster. The relay output
plugs directly into most recent commercial telescope drives and is easily modifiable to virtually any
drive system. As a result, you can take hour long guided exposures with ease, with no differential
deflection of guide scope relative to main telescope, and no radial guider setup hassles, all from the
computer keyboard. This capability, coupled with the phenomenal sensitivity of the CCD, will
allow the user to acquire observatory class images of deep sky images with modest apertures! The
technology also makes image stabilization possible through our AO-7, or self-guided spectroscopy
with our SGS.
The new ST-X series of cameras incorporate the following design improvements over their
parallel based predecessors:
Uses High Speed USB vs. Parallel Port for 10X to 15X faster downloads.
Adds a new I2C bi-directional AUX port for future use.
LEDs on the Digital Board show Relay Activations (helpful for troubleshooting).
New Heat Exchanger with Water Circulation Capability built-in.
No firmware ROM to update, software uploads to camera at boot-up.
New capabilities can be added to the camera by replacing the loader driver.
New Boot sequence, LED flashes and fan comes on when firmware upload is complete.
LED flashes when initializing shutter.
Mechanical/electronic design work to reduce shutter errors and stray light.
TC237 autoguider CCD added to the ST-8XE, ST-9XE, ST-10XE and ST-10XME.
Premier software, CCDSoftV5 and TheSky included with each camera.
CCDOPS version 5 camera control software included with major improvements
o Support for USB cameras
o Support for Ethernet (Ethernet to Parallel) for parallel cameras
o Read FITS files
o Save in several formats (including ASCII format that imports to Excel).
o Multiple images open at once
o New universal drivers
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