Orion 52083 - Manual (Page 12)

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Note: The camera’s field of view is fairly small. It is approximately equivalent to
the field of view through the telescope when looking through a typical (i.e. not
wide-field) 10mm focal length eyepiece. So make sure the object to be imaged
is well centered in the telescope before connecting the SSDSMI-2, otherwise
it may not appear in the field of view of the camera
.
10. Once focused, image orientation can be changed by rotating the camera
within the focuser drawtube. Simply loosen the thumbscrew on the draw-
tube and rotate the camera until the desired image orientation is achieved.
Retighten the thumbscrew on the focuser drawtube when done. You may
need to slightly refocus (using the telescope’s focus knob) if the focuser
drawtube has moved a bit inward or outward when the camera was rotated.
11. When the image is focused and the image looks acceptable, press the
Stop button in the Camera Control Window.
12. Beneath the Mode box in the Camera Control Window select Single.
13. Click the Expose button in the Camera Control Window. An image will
appear in a window.
14. You can now save the image for later processing, if you wish. This is done
by selecting Save from the File menu.
You have captured your first image with the SSDSMI-2! This simple method
of imaging is exactly how the camera could be used to capture terrestrial
subjects during daylight hours. Close-up images of birds and other wildlife or
faraway vistas can all be obtained in this way with the SSDSMI-2. Solar images
can also be taken during the day with an optional full-aperture solar filter over
the front of the telescope.
Take some time to use the camera and Maxim DL Essential software during the
day to become familiar and comfortable with their basic operation.
Note: All of the images taken with the SSDSMI-2 are black and white. To obtain
color images with this camera, see “Color Filter Imaging Using the SSDSMI-2
Monochrome”.
Note: In the Camera Control Window, there is a Setup button. Clicking on
this button will allow you to toggle the High Speed Readout Mode on and
off. High
Speed Readout Mode should generally be left on unless there is a
specific reason (i.e. your computer system cannot process the higher speed
readout) to turn it off.
Screen Stretch Window
The function of the Screen Stretch Window (Figure 9) is to properly map the
image brightness levels captured by the camera into corresponding image
brightness levels on the computer screen. A typical camera image has each
pixel (light detecting site, over 437,000 pixels form a single SSDSMI-2 image)
represented as a number (from 1 to 65535) depending on brightness. This has
to be mapped into the video monitor’s brightness range (from 1 to 255). It is
important to set the screen stretch appropriately, or a great image may look
terrible!