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Good CCD Camera for 10k-15k Euro



 
 
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  #11  
Old March 3rd 04, 01:58 PM
Thomas Juerges
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Default Good CCD Camera for 10k-15k Euro

Dear David,

On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 20:11:34 +0000, David Whysong wrote:

That's not read noise, it must be the bias level. You can subtract it off
relatively cleanly.


Hmm, from the user's point of view one cannot determine if it is really
bias, i.e. due to too low pre biasing the pixel cells in order to remove
noise or if it is real read out noise. Please correct if I'm wrong.

Anyway, the performance is ok but the "bias/readout" noise.

If you're working on driving the newer SBIG cameras from Linux, I'd love
to hear about it. I'm thinking about doing that myself.


No problem, David. Watch the following link:
http://almasw.hq.eso.org/almasw/bin/view/Main/WebHome
- ALMASW.ACS
- ACS For (non-)ALMA projects: ACS contributed code

After next week I'll upload the final source code release for our
telescope project. The software is integrated into the ACS (ALMA Common
Software, a kind of abstraction and expansion of ACE & TAO) but it should
be an easy job for a programer to grab the main things from it. I'm using
the latest SBIG developer libraries, so that the (hopefully soon arriving)
STL should run flawlessly. But... I have not integrated the filterwheel
yet. This is scheduled for 3rd quarter this year.

Best regards,
Thomas
  #12  
Old March 3rd 04, 11:28 PM
David Whysong
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Default Good CCD Camera for 10k-15k Euro

Thomas Juerges wrote:
Dear David,


On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 20:11:34 +0000, David Whysong wrote:


That's not read noise, it must be the bias level. You can subtract it off
relatively cleanly.


Hmm, from the user's point of view one cannot determine if it is really
bias, i.e. due to too low pre biasing the pixel cells in order to remove
noise or if it is real read out noise. Please correct if I'm wrong.


Anyway, the performance is ok but the "bias/readout" noise.


Ok, maybe I'm confused...

If you take two short ( 1 second) exposures, then subtract one from the
other, what is the RMS of the resulting image?

It should be something of order 10; if it's more like 4000, then something
is very wrong with your camera.

After next week I'll upload the final source code release for our
telescope project. The software is integrated into the ACS (ALMA Common
Software, a kind of abstraction and expansion of ACE & TAO) but it should
be an easy job for a programer to grab the main things from it. I'm using
the latest SBIG developer libraries, so that the (hopefully soon arriving)
STL should run flawlessly. But... I have not integrated the filterwheel
yet. This is scheduled for 3rd quarter this year.


Thanks for the link! I had a look at the SBIG library, the STL cameras have
a very high level filter wheel interface so programming that should be easy
compared to (for example) autoguiding. Anyway I'll definitely have a look
at your software when it's posted, thanks.

Dave

David Whysong
DWhysong (at) physics (dot) ucsb (dot) edu
  #13  
Old March 4th 04, 01:06 PM
Thomas Juerges
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Default Good CCD Camera for 10k-15k Euro

Dear David,

On Wed, 03 Mar 2004 22:28:31 +0000, David Whysong wrote:
Ok, maybe I'm confused...

If you take two short ( 1 second) exposures, then subtract one from the
other, what is the RMS of the resulting image?

It should be something of order 10; if it's more like 4000, then something
is very wrong with your camera.


See the personal mail I sent you for my current time schedule. I'll keep
the mailing list informed.

Thanks for the link! I had a look at the SBIG library, the STL cameras
have a very high level filter wheel interface so programming that should
be easy compared to (for example) autoguiding. Anyway I'll definitely
have a look at your software when it's posted, thanks.


Yes, you are right. There is only a small but: They have implemented not
as much as they should have done. Some features are still missing as
a function to be called for repetitive exposures or reading out the
ambient temperature sensor as it is possible for ccd temperature. Although
it is not a big problem to put the needed functionality into the library
code.

Regards,
Thomas
  #14  
Old March 5th 04, 09:00 AM
David Whysong
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Posts: n/a
Default Good CCD Camera for 10k-15k Euro

Thomas Juerges wrote:

Yes, you are right. There is only a small but: They have implemented not
as much as they should have done. Some features are still missing as
a function to be called for repetitive exposures or reading out the
ambient temperature sensor as it is possible for ccd temperature. Although
it is not a big problem to put the needed functionality into the library
code.


That's too bad. I must say that I'm a little annoyed that the driver source
code isn't available. They have a binary-only module, which limits the
architecture and kernel compatability of their cameras. Since my development
computer is a dual Opteron, I can't load the driver.

Starlight Xpress cameras are extremely well supported under Linux; I tested
the HX916 support and wrote my own camera control software in Perl/PDL. I'd
like to be able to do the same sort of thing with SBIG cameras.

Dave

David Whysong
DWhysong (at) physics (dot) ucsb (dot) edu
 




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