More Information  · Images of Some Features

Features of the Camera . . .

• Imaging sensor: High sensitivity 1/2” diagonal dimension Sony EXview HAD (Hole Accumulation Diode) color CCD sensor. Sensitivity is comparable to imagers costing over $1000.
  
  
• One-pass imaging: Color images do not require multiple exposures through color filters as more expensive CCD cameras do.
  
  
• Resolution : 752 pixels wide x 582 pixels high (437,664 total pixels). Each pixel measures 8.3 microns wide x 8.6 microns high. The virtually square pixels make image processing easier and provide more realistic stellar images.
  
  
• Analog to digital conversion: Full 16-bit A/D conversion for greater image depth and contrast.
  
  
• Exposure times: From 1/10,000th of a second to one hour. This allows you to record images of bright lunar and planetary features as well as faint deep sky nebulas and galaxies that the unaided eye could never perceive, all in full color.
  
  
• Temperature sensor: A built-in temperature sensor provides fast and accurate automatic dark frame subtraction to reduce the visual effects of “hot” or “cold” pixels. The temperature sensor matches the current temperature of the CCD chip to each dark frame so it’s nearly impossible to take an uncalibrated picture.
  
  
• USB 2.0 connection to your computer: The DSI II uses a high speed USB 2.0 connection for fast data transfer. You see your images on your computer screen almost as soon as you take them, making focusing and composing quick and easy. The Deep Sky Imager II is also backward compatible with USB 1.1.
  
  
• Advanced mechanical and electronic design for low thermal noise: Several unique engineering advances (with multiple patents pending) eliminate many of the drawbacks that have previously plagued low cost electronic imaging. For example, internal power supplies are turned off during exposures, and the camera operated on stored energy. This lowers the amount of electronic noise in the image. Analog and digital circuits are separated into opposite metal chambers with separate ground planes to reduce noise in the image. No compression is used on the signal coming from the imaging sensor. That means no loss of information in your raw images.
  
      Whether you take your image for beauty or for science, the Deep Sky Imager II will give you the full dynamic range results you need. Special convective cooling methods are used to direct heat generated by the electronic circuits away from the imaging sensor. In addition, the entire rear plane of the anodized aluminum housing of the DSI II is a heat sink. These features combine to reduce image noise and improve the camera’s ability to take long exposures.
  
      Even with all the thermal noise reducing features of the DSI II, the dedicated summertime astrophotographer may find it useful to add the #DSIFAN cooling fan described below in the “Recommended Accessories” section.
  
  
• Connection to the telescope: The Deep Sky Imager II has a 1.25” nosepiece that allows you to use it with any telescope having a 1.25” focuser. A parfocalizing ring lets you focus the Imager at the same point as a favorite eyepiece. With the eyepiece in your scope, center in the eyepiece the object you want to take a picture of and focus. Then, simply replace the eyepiece with the DSI 2, tweak the focus if needed (using the supplied Magic Eye software-assisted focusing), and shoot.
  
  
• Power requirements: No batteries or power supplies required. Just plug the Imager’s USB cable into your laptop or PC and you are ready to image or autoguide. No other power supplies are needed.
  
  
• Dimensions: The compact Deep Sky Imager II measures only 3.25” x 3.25” x 3.25” and weighs a mere 10 ounces, so balancing your telescope with the camera on will not require additional counterweights.
  
  

Features of the Imaging Portion of the Software . . .

• Automatic and manual exposure: Auto and manual exposure settings let the Deep Sky Imager II optimize the exposure automatically, or let you set it yourself.
  
  
• Automatic align and stack: The software will automatically align and stack a series of images, using state-of-the-art techniques, to provide an extremely low noise, highly detailed single composite color image.
  
  
• Color saturation and balance: The AutoStar Suite includes the tools to adjust color saturation and balance, eliminating the need to use Photoshop or other aftermarket tools to accomplish this pre-publication step.
  
  
• Stretch options: Auto-stretch automatically brings out dim objects in short exposures. It optimizes the contrast of objects, with adjustable contrast settings.
  
  
• Automatic dark subtraction: Dark frames are automatically subtracted, eliminating hot or cold pixels and giving you a clean final image. “Fix Cold Pixels” removes “holes” in images resulting from saturated dark pixels during long exposures. “Fix Hot Pixels” removes cosmic ray strikes and noisy pixels from images.
  
  
• Resampling: Allows you to smoothly increase or decrease the image size from the standard 752 pixels wide x 582 pixels high with minimal image degradation.
  
  
• Live histogram: Helps you optimize for the best exposure.
  
  
• Blink comparator: This allows you to align and blink images taken at different times for supernova and minor planet patrols.
  
  
• Magic Eye focus: Built-in focusing program for super fast, no-hassle focusing.
  
  
• Autoguider capable: The software also allows the DSI II to be used as a sensitive and simple to use autoguider for guiding long exposure 35mm photos or CCD images taken with your existing CCD camera.
  
  
• Time lapse photography: This built-in program lets you create movies of the rotation of Jupiter, moons transiting Jupiter, lunar occultations, etc.
  
  
• “Drizzle” Technology: Originally developed by NASA for processing images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the included Drizzle software program corrects field rotation (with Meade AutoStar-controlled telescopes only), eliminating the need to polar align the telescope. Instead of just tracking and stacking images by following the movements of one star, the supplied Envisage Software with Drizzle tracks and stacks images locked on two stars. This corrects for the image rotation that streaks the star images during conventional imaging if the telescope is tracking in the Altazimuth mode, or you have only roughly polar aligned your telescope in the Equatorial mode.
  
      Using this feature, you can do a quick alignment of your Meade telescope in Altaz, turn on the Deep Sky Imager, select Drizzle, and draw a box around each of two stars in the field. The software electronically rotates each succeeding image before adding it to the final image, to overlay those same two stars in each succeeding image onto the two stars initially selected. The result is the accurate alignment of all stars in the final image, without showing rotational star trails.
  
      When the object being imaged would normally call for a bigger chip camera, the astrophotographer can enable the “Extended View” function of the Drizzle software which can provide an image that is four times larger than the camera chip.
  
      Drizzle “Extended View” extends the field of view up to 2 times horizontally and vertically by automatically mosaicing the image. Once you take the primary image, the “Extended View” function of Drizzle automatically guides a Meade AutoStar-controlled telescope to the four corners of that image and takes additional images that are added seamlessly to the original. The automatically-guided telescope moves in small precision increments, pauses to take an additional image, and then repeats the action to make a seamless mosaic. This increases the true field of view of the image from 752 x 582 pixels to 1504 x 1164. It results in a final image that is four times larger than the original.
  
      The “Drizzle Resolution” function increases the image resolution more effectively than the more commonly used interpolation method. By taking multiple undersampled dithered shots of the object being imaged through a Meade AutoStar-controlled telescope, Drizzle reconstructs the image at a higher resolution. To accomplish this, Drizzle moves the AutoStar-controlled telescope a small amount many times, taking an image at every stop, again and again reading out fractions of each pixel as each exposure is made and reconstructing the image from those fractional pixels. Using fractional pixels increases the image resolution. While the final image size does not change with finer settings, the final image will be sharper.
  
  
• Included components: You get the AutoStar Suite Software on a CD-ROM, DSI II Camera, USB Cable, LX200 serial cable, #497 AutoStar serial cable, DB-9 to RJ-11 adapter (for PC serial connection), parfocal ring, and installation and operating Instructions.
  
  
• Computer requirements: The minimum computer requirements for installing the Autostar Software Suite with Drizzle technology update are a PC with a Pentium II or better computer running at 400MHz or faster (a Pentium 4 operating at 2GHz is recommended), 98MB of RAM (512MB is recommended), 200MB of available hard drive space (1GB or more is recommended), a CD-ROM drive, and a USB 1.1 full-power port (USB 2.0 is recommended). The computer should be running Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, or XP (XP is recommended).