Starlight Xpress SXV-M7C - Manual (Page 2)

Handbook for SXV-M7C Issue 1 June 2004
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available and the use of ‘secondary colour’ filters on the CCD surface gives the
greatest possible throughput of light to the pixels. This camera is a next generation
version of the parallel port driven MX7-C, but the use of an internal USB2 interface
and the addition of an external guide camera option makes it considerably more
effective.
The synthesis of image data from a colour filter matrix CCD is somewhat complex
and may be performed in several different ways. We have chosen to do this by
creating a high-resolution ‘luminance’ file and combining this with lower resolution
red, green and blue, ‘chrominance’ files. This has the advantage of separating the
major image processing operations from the colour information generation, so that
good colour balance can be preserved while processing the luminance file. When the
image is first downloaded from the camera, it is shown in monochrome, as the colour
data is still hidden in the fine scale pixel values and it needs to be extracted by
mathematical processing of the image data. The software provided will perform this
function with a few simple mouse clicks.
Please note that the SXV-M7C can be operated in several different imaging modes.
The easiest to use is ‘Fast’, which creates a colour image from a single exposure and
so this is the mode used in the operating instructions below. ‘Fast’ mode does give a
slightly reduced vertical resolution in the output image, but this is barely detectable
unless observing conditions are extremely good. ‘Progressive’ and ‘Interlaced’ modes
will be described later.
Please take a few minutes to study the contents of this manual, which will help you to
get the camera into operation quickly and without problems. I am sure that you want
to see some results as soon as possible, so please move on to the ‘Quick Start’ section,
which follows. A more detailed description of imaging techniques will be found in a
later part of this manual.
‘Quick Starting’ your SXV-M7C system
In the shipping container you will find the following items:
1) The SXV-M7C camera head.
2) A power supply module.
3) A 3 metre USB camera cable.
4) An adaptor for 1.25” drawtubes.
5) A diskette with the ‘SXV_M7C’ software.
6) This manual.
You will also need a PC computer with Windows 98SE, Windows 2000 or Windows
XP. This machine must have at least one USB port (ideally USB2.0) and at least 64
Megs of memory. If you intend to view the finished colour images on its screen, then
you will also need a graphics card capable of displaying an image with a minimum of