User manual SBIG ST-237

[. . . ] PRICE $10. 00 Operating Manual for the ST-237 Advanced CCD Camera Santa Barbara Instrument Group Santa Barbara Instrument Group 1482 East Valley Road - Suite 33 PO Box 50437 Santa Barbara, CA 93150 PHN (805) 969-1851 FAX (310) 969-4069 Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. [. . . ] In that way you have told CCDOPS how to reduce the 16 bit data to 8 bits. 3. 2. 4 Loading Images You use the Open command to load SBIG compressed and uncompressed images from the disk into CCDOPS. When the software presents the Open dialog, you can select files or move through the directory structure by opening other directory or disk entries. Also note that you can point to an image file and click on the Info button to view the image parameters without having to load the image. 3. 3. Image Display Routines Image data wouldn't be very valuable if you didn't have some way to look at it. This section describes the various commands and parameters that affect the image display. 3. 3. 1 Photo vs. Analysis Mode There are basically two ways to view and image: Analysis and Photo mode. In either mode you can choose to display the image as a Negative or with a soft Smoothing. Also if your computer has a VESA extended VGA display adapter, you can use the arrow keys to adjust the image brightness and contrast in real time. In Analysis mode the image is displayed and several tools are available to analyze or modify the image. You can use a Crosshair to inspect individual pixels and to make Photometric and Astrometric measurements or verify focus of individual stars. You can perform a Horizontal or Vertical Flip of the image to match other published results or to compensate for varying optical configurations such as refractor, Cassegrain, Newtonian, or diagonal use. You can Crop the image to remove something from the field of view or you can Zoom the image 4:1, taking a small portion of the image and expanding it to full scale. In Photo mode the image is displayed in the center of the screen free of any other information. This is handy for taking photographs of the screen and visual presentation. 3. 3. 2 Image Parameters The CCDOPS software saves an image header with every SBIG format image. The header contains various parameters affecting the image such as the exposure time, the date and time the image was acquired, etc. The Display Parameters command shows the image header in a tabular form. The Modification History command shows which CCDOPS operations have been performed on the image, such as dark subtraction, etc. The Edit Parameters command allows you to change some of the parameters after an image has been acquired (if they had been set incorrectly for example) and the Telescope Setup command allows you to tell CCDOPS about the type of telescope you are using. This information also gets saved in the header. Page 27 Section 3 - Software Flow 3. 3. 3 Slide Shows The CCDOPS software allows you to create Slide Shows of images you have acquired. A slide show is just what it sound like: a series of images is displayed in photo mode at a periodic interval. You use the Create Slide Show command to build the slide show, selecting the images and the sequence. The script gets saved on disk and is later played back with the Display Slide Show command. When playing back the slide show you can program the interval between slides, whether the slide show loops at the end and whether the images are shown as negatives or with a soft smoothing. 3. 3. 4 Printing Images The Print command allows you to make a hard copy print of the image. [. . . ] 1 F fan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 field operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 file filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 67 Index file formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 file path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Filter Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 filter wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 filters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 finding objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 FITS format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 FITS format (def). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 flat field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33, 62 Flat Field (def) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Flat Field Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Focal Reducer (def) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 focus Dim mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Planet mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Focus Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 focusing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Focusing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 frame transfer CCDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Frame Transfer CCDs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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