Rosliston Astronomy Group Phil Dyer Astro Camera manual package Contents

Transcription

1 Rosliston Astronomy Group Phil Dyer Astro Camera manual package Contents This document is a combination of several source files on using the Phil Dyer camera. 1. Instruction Manual produced by Phil Dyer 2. Phil Dyer's recommended settings for the camera for Astro video work 3. Technical details of the PD camera (technical manual) 4. Notes on using the Phil Dyer Astro Video camera by RAG s Roger Samworth, 16/4/ Powerpoint presentation on the Phil Dyer Astro Video camera by Roger Samworth, 16/4/ Imaging objects with the Phil Dyer Video Camera. This document is a tutorial on processing video files produced by the camera. Roger Samworth, 2/2/2015

2 PD Colour Astro Video Camera QUICK START MANUAL Introduction 1 phildyer@hotmail.com Web: Tel: Fax: Congratulations on your purchase of a PD Camera. This camera is so versatile, you ll find so many different uses for the camera in observing the night sky. PD cameras are the latest generation Huviron CCTV cameras, selected for their supreme sensitivity, and modified by us for astronomy uses. The PD video camera is so wonderfully versatile, that you will quickly find it indispensable for most of your astronomy activities. First of all, it s so easy to use. You don t always need to connect it to a telescope. You can use it with small lenses, camera lenses and the like, on small photo tripods. Very light, very transportable. Easy to set up (plugs to any TV). It s powerful. It packs a lot of power into its small size. Whatever lens system you use it with, will seem 4 times bigger so your 50mm camera lens will match any 200mm scope in magnitudes. And even the small lens supplied will show wide views and all those stars you miss out on due to light pollution. It s flexible. It has the sensitivity to display deep sky objects in real time, but also the speed and flexibility to display brighter objects like the moon and planets, and even fast moving objects like meteors and man made satellites. It s adaptable. You don t need to connect the camera to a PC/Laptop, but you can if you like. All cabling, software, etc is provided. Then you can process your observations and dramatically increasing the sensitivity and sharpness of images. It s shareable. You can easily share with others. A whole crowd can view on PC or TV screen even indoors with the telescope outside. No more standing around in the cold waiting for a short turn at the eyepiece. All this might sound quite complicated but its simple really, and these specially written instructions are designed to have you up and running within a few minutes. The PD Camera package (Full Kit): PD Colour Camera Wide-angle lens 12V mains adapter Cable and connectors for TV/PC display Capture device for PC Display and Capture 1.25 Eyepiece Adapter for telescopes

3 2 Phil Dyer (PD) Colour Astro Video Camera INSTRUCTION MANUAL Contents page Connections and initial Set-up 3 For display on a TV set 3 For Display and capture on a PC or Laptop 3 Install Capture Device drivers 4 PC Display and Capture using POWER DIRECTOR 5 Setting up the camera in Power Director 5 Capturing Video and single frames 6 PC Display and Capture using MEDIA PLAYER CLASSIC 7 Setting up the camera in Media Player Classic 7 Capturing Video and single frames 8 Image Processing 9 On Screen Display (OSD) Camera Settings 9 11 Specifications 12

4 3 Connections and initial Set-up To start with, use the camera with the small lens provided. Then, connect the video cable, and power cable from the mains adapter, into the back of the camera as shown. Note: Power supply is connected regardless polarity. As necessary, press with fingernail (as shown) to connect/disconnect wires. For display on a TV set After connecting the mains adapter power cable and the video cable to the camera as shown above, connect the other end of the Video Cable to the Video In socket on the TV (see right). Use the TV remote to change the TV channel to AV. Plug in and switch on the mains adapter, and you re done. You then need to adjust the Brightness and/or Contrast settings of your TV in conjunction with the OSD settings on the pages Image on the right is a snapshot of the TV screen, taken with a small digital camera. For Display and capture on a PC/Laptop Connect the power and video cables to the camera as shown at the top of this page. Switch on your PC/Laptop and wait till it s fully booted up. Connect the video output from the Camera to the KWorld DVD Maker, and then plug the DVD maker into the USB port on your PC/Laptop. Plug in the mains adapter and switch on. The green light on the back of the camera should light up. If the windows Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard pops up, then cancel out of the screen.

5 For the first time only, you will need to install the drivers and software:- Insert the Kworld PlusTV Driver Installation CD-ROM into your PC s CD or DVD drive. 4 Select Driver Installation, and follow the on-screen instructions. Once Driver Installation is complete, you then need to install software for viewing live output to your PC/laptop, and for capturing video and images. You have 2 choices (2 CDs) - Media Player Classic, or the Power Director 5 software. Media Player Classic gives full screen viewing, and is all you need for astronomy use. And is easy to install, you simply copy the exe file from the CD to any folder on your PC. Double-click the exe file to run the application. Power Director is a full movie editing suit, but does not offer full screen viewing, and may not work with Windows 8. If you install it from the CD, you will then need to Restart the computer.

6 PC Display and Capture using Power Director 5 TV Change Folder LIVE DISPLAY Profile Record/ Stop Snapshot Settings Setting up the camera in Power Director This Power Director program is very comprehensive and will capture any analogue input, from old Video Cassettes for example, and turn them into digital format, which you can then burn to DVD using the Power producer program. Power Director may not work with Windows 8, however. If you decided to install Power Director, this section describes how you use it. Otherwise, skip to next section "Media Player Classic". Connect the camera to your PC/laptop as described in Page 3. Then in Power Director, you will see the first screen as shown on the right. The first thing to do is to set up the camera in Power Director Start by clicking the Capture button. Then click on the Capture from TV button

7 6 Newest Version of Power Director should detect the camera Automatically. If camera is not detected, then - Click on the Settings button Then set Capture Device and Capture Source as shown on the right. A live video picture should appear on screen. You can adjust the screen picture (brightness, contrast, etc) by clicking the Settings button, then Adjust Video Click on the Profile button Then set Profile. The settings are a matter of personal choice. Some good settings are shown on the right. These particular ones capture raw data, ie no compression (which you can check by clicking the Settings button (shown on the right). That completes the camera set-up in Power Director Capturing Video and single frames To record video, click on the RECORD button. Use the same button to stop recording. Alternatively, you can pre-set the duration of the video capture by ticking the Time limit box (see right), and entering a time in hours:mins:secs. Then click the RECORD button; the video capture will stop automatically when the set time is up. To Capture a single frame, click on the SNAPSHOT button. NOTE: Your captured videos and single frames are shown in the Captured Clips window (see right). The files are saved, by default, to the MyWorks folder on your computer Hard Drive. Before capture, you can change where your files will be saved, by clicking on the Change Folder button.

8 PC Display and Capture using Media Player Classic 7 Media Player Classic is a simple but effective freeware program which does a good job of displaying video full screen. And it will capture still images and video streams from the PD camera. The program is stand-alone. This means that no installation is necessary you simply copy the program exe file (supplied on the PD Camera computer disk) to a suitable folder on your PC/laptop. To run the application, simply double-click the exe file. Setting up the camera in Media Player Classic Once Media Player Classic is up and running, set up the camera as follows. Connect the camera to your PC/laptop as described in Page 3. Open the camera in Media Player Classic by clicking File, Open Device (as shown on the right) Then choose the 2860 Video device (as shown on the right). Then click OK.

9 Capturing Video and single frames in Media Player Classic 8 To save the current display as a STILL IMAGE, click File, Save Image (as shown on the right) To save the current moving display as a VIDEO STREAM - click File, Capture (as shown on the right) Then set the parameters as shown below Choose frame size (640 x 480 is good) But frame rate must be Then click the SET button. Choose uncompressed Choose folder for saving video Click Record to start, and Stop to finish.

10 9 Image Processing Free Processing Software Now that you ve captured your video, you ll want to process it. Single image snapshots can be processed with any imaging software. But to get the most from you images/video, it s best to combine many images, or a complete video stream, into a single image. This process has the effect of dramatically increasing the sensitivity and sharpness of images produced with the Camera. Other Software Other software, which is not free, but has the advantage of combining the processes of capturing and processing in a single program, are: A very good application for this purpose is the completely free DeepSkyStacker, which can be downloaded from here: lish/index.html Also good is the free Registax, which can be downloaded from here: nload.html Astrovideo htm K3CCDtools k3ccdtools.htm On Screen Display (OSD) Settings What are important are the 5 push buttons labelled ENTER, U, D, L, R (up, down, left, right) Pressing the middle button (ENTER) activates the OSD menu. Select the individual functions via the UP and DOWN buttons. Change a parameter by pressing the LEFT and RIGHT buttons. after a selection, indicates that there is a sub-menu; this is activated via the middle button. RETURN takes one to the previous menu. The screenshot shows the Main menu. Exposure Menu - LENS Set LENS to MANUAL, as shown.

11 10 Exposure Menu - LENS Shutter speed default value is 1/50 sec, and this is fine for Deep Sky viewing. For brighter objects, (provided the SENSE-UP is set to OFF), the LENS, MANUAL sub menu allows you to set the shutter speed to any value from 1/50 sec down to 1/ sec. Exposure Menu AGC, and SENSE-UP AGC can be set to LOW, MEDIUM, or HIGH, to increase the sensitivity of the camera. SENSE-UP can be set to values up to 1024x fields, (up to 20 seconds). Higher values of AGC and SENSE-UP bring some increased noise, particularly if the camera is used in warm conditions (eg indoors). Exposure Menu 3D-DNR Digital Noise Reduction can be set at Auto, or Low, Med and High. White Balance Menu ATW is the default value, and the default values are fine for most imaging purposes. A fully MANUAL option is also available. In each case, the R-Y B-Y colour balance of the image can adjusted manually. Day Night Menu D&N MODE should be set to COLOR. The Camera s original design incorporated an IR- CUT filter which would kick-in, in Colour mode. In this PD version of the camera, this filter has been disabled to make the camera suitable for deep sky imaging.

12 11 Image Adjust Menu Gamma should be set to 0.45 to 1.00 for bright objects. Special Menu DPC For Deep sky, set Gamma to USER, then set to a lower value, like 0.30 or Here you can set the level of Defective Pixel Correction, for Bright Pixels and Dead Pixels. Increasing the value of WHITE THR will turn bright pixels off. But use sparingly, since high values may result in star images being turned off. Special Menu FACTORY SETTINGS To return the camera to its factory settings, change FACTORT SET to YES, then press ENTER button. AUTO WHITE BALANCE AWB AWB MODE - PUSH The camera is supplied without an IR Cut filter. This means that images will have a predominately red cast, with terrestrial infra red sources (such as foliage in sunlight) showing bright. The AWB feature can be used to correct this colour cast. It's not very scientific, but it does produce most interesting results, both terrestrially and astronomically. SAVING YOUR CHANGES EXIT - SAVE&EXIT To save any changes made, go to the EXIT menu, and select SAVE&EXIT.

13 Specifications The PD Colour Camera (modified Huviron). Imaging chip: Sony SuperHAD CCD II, ICX639BKA Chip size: Diagonal 6mm (Type 1/3"); 4.89mm (H) x 3.64mm (V) Number of effective pixels: 752 (H) x 582 (V); Total number of pixels: 795 (H) x 596 (V); Pixel size: 6.5 microns (H) x 6.25 microns (V) Resolution: 600 TV lines The camera features on-board controls for full control of gain, shutter speed, sensitivity, gamma, pixel correction, digital noise reduction, etc. For details, see the technical Manual sheet PDF As with any CCD camera, you should bear in mind that the field of view with telescopes can be quite small. The Camera's chip size is 6.1mm diagonal and the field of view with various focal lengths is as follows:- Focal Length Field of View (diagonal) Focal Length Field of View (diagonal) 2000 mm 10 minutes of arc 75 mm 4.7 degrees 1000 mm 21 minutes of arc 50 mm 7.0 degrees 500 mm 42 minutes of arc 25 mm 14 degrees 200 mm 1.8 degrees 16mm 22 degrees 100 mm 3.5 degrees 12.5m 28 degrees The following is a guide to the limiting magnitudes (stars) which can be seen live on TV screen when the PD Camera is fitted to telescopes/lenses of various apertures. Some users claim to have bettered these figures. In practice, the limiting magnitude will depend largely on local conditions. The figures below assume dark, clear skies. In town conditions the figures might be reduced by up to 2 magnitudes or more. The figures will also be reduced if the optics are of poor quality, or if they are poorly focused. Telescope/Lens Aperture Limiting Magnitude (stars) Telescope/Lens Aperture Limiting Magnitude (stars) 200mm (8") 17 mag 50mm (135mm f2.8) 14 mag 125 mm (1000mm f8) 16 mag 36 mm (135mm f4) 13.3 mag 100 mm (1000mm f10) 15.5 mag 18 mm (25mm f1.4) 11.8 mag 75 mm (300mm f4 ) 15 mag 10mm (16mm f1.6) 10.5 mag 12

14 PD COLOUR ASTRO VIDEO CAMERA (modified Huviron) RECOMMENDED SETTINGS For Deep Sky Imaging Exposure Menu Lens: Manual, E Shutter: 1/50sec AGC: LOW SENSE-UP: 128x, 256x, 512x or 1024x Backlight: OFF 3D-DNR: HIGH Day & Night Menu D&N Mode: COLOR Burst: OFF Smart IR: OFF Image Adjust Menu Mirror: OFF Gamma: USER: 0.30 or 0.35 LSC: OFF Special Menu Title: OFF Communication: OFF DPC: OFF Factory Set: NO All other settings can be left at their default values. For Bright Objects (eg Sun, Moon, Planets) Settings are the same as above, except - Exposure Menu Lens: Manual, E Shutter: 1/50sec or less AGC: OFF SENSE-UP: OFF Image Adjust Menu Gamma: USER: 1.00, or a little less

15 FOCUSING THE PD CAMERA 1. You should not try to focus the camera if it is set to deep sky settings. If the camera is set to SENSE-UP value of 256x say, then the image you see will be refreshed only once every 5 seconds. This is too slow for you to see the effects of minor adjustments to the focus. So it's best to set the camera to a shorter exposure, SENSE-UP set to OFF, or no more than 4x. Then choose a bright star to focus on. It's a good idea to mark the focuser tube in some way, so that point of focus can be found quicker in future sessions. Alternatively (and this is the easiest), find the rough focus in daylight, by focusing on some distant object. This is easier because out-offocus daylight objects appear as fussy colours and can be used as a pointer to the focus point. Whereas at night, out of focus stars just disappear altogether. 2. You may be unable to achieve focus using a diagonal. If the prime focus is within the diagonal, then the camera will never focus. In which case, you will need to dispense with the diagonal. Note: if you can achieve focus with the diagonal, bear in mind the image will be laterally inverted, so you will need to use the camera's MIRROR function to correct the image.

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18 Some Notes on Video Camera Astronomy and use of the Phil Dyer Colour Camera Introduction I always wanted to look through a telescope and see those wonderful images of planets, spiral galaxies, nebulae etc etc didn t we all? It doesn t happen, of course. The main problem from light polluted skies is contrast. Increasing aperture (I am now up to 12!) doesn t help much as it makes everything brighter and does not improve contrast. You can take long exposure photos, and I really admire the people that have the technology, patience and determination to integrate hours of exposure to produce the brilliant images that we can all see. Unfortunately, I do not possess any of the above mentioned traits I am much more down the instant gratification end of the spectrum. I have toyed with various things such as image enhancers etc, without a lot of success. Then I discovered the PD Colour Video Camera! Read on The PD Colour Camera This is what Phil Dyer says about the camera. I have no connection at all with Mr. Dyer, but as far as I can tell, it is all true! PD cameras are the latest generation Huviron CCTV cameras, selected for their supreme sensitivity, and modified by us for astronomy uses. The PD video camera is so wonderfully versatile, that you will quickly find it indispensable for most of your astronomy activities. First of all, it s so easy to use. You don t always need to connect it to a telescope. You can use it with small lenses, camera lenses and the like, on small photo tripods. Very light, very transportable. Easy to set up (plugs to any TV). It s powerful. It packs a lot of power into its small size. Whatever lens system you use it with, will seem 4 times bigger so your 50mm camera lens will match any 200mm scope in magnitudes. And even the small lens supplied will show wide views and all those stars you miss out on due to light pollution. It s flexible. It has the sensitivity to display deep sky objects in real time, but also the speed and flexibility to display brighter objects like the moon and planets, and even fast moving objects like meteors and man made satellites. It s adaptable. You don t need to connect the camera to a PC/Laptop, but you can if you like. All cabling, software, etc is provided. Then you can process your observations and dramatically increasing the sensitivity and sharpness of images. It s shareable. You can easily share with others. A whole crowd can view on PC or TV screen even indoors with the telescope outside. No more standing around in the cold waiting for a short turn at the eyepiece. All this might sound quite complicated but its simple really, and these specially written instructions are designed to have you up and running within a few minutes.

19 The PD Camera package (Full Kit): PD Colour Camera Wide-angle lens 12V mains adapter Cable and connectors for TV/PC display Capture device for PC Display and Capture 1.25 Eyepiece Adapter for telescopes When in operation to take stills as a screen grab the camera takes a series of exposures at 1/50 th second, and will internally stack and process up to 1024 of these 1/50 th second frames. This takes around 20 seconds. This means that your mount only has to track well (if at all) for 20 seconds. You can then take as many of these 20 second frames as you like and stack them in Registax, or something similar, that then takes care of any residual movement. I usually take around 10, giving a total exposure of 200 seconds or so. You can also use the camera in movie mode, recording the individual frames as an.avi movie. You do this for brighter objects such as the moon or planets, and again use Registax to stack them. In this case you can use faster shutter speeds to keep distortion from atmospheric wobble down. Again, generally, I use around 3000 frames. The Question of Contrast Once we have images in electronic form, all sorts of image processing options are available. As far as deep sky imaging is concerned, one of the most significant options is to improve the contrast of the images, usually non-linearly, by using a gamma function or similar. I use GIMP 2 to process my images and in that software it is badged curves. This is all explained in my associated document Imaging Deep Sky Objects with the Phil Dyer Colour Video Camera. You can also sharpen images with dramatic effect on planetary images. It is important to note that none of these processes adds anything to the image that was not there originally, they simply emphasise or suppress features.

20 Some examples of what you can do. Here is a selection of deep sky images that I have acquired with my set-up

21 Here are a few images of Jupiter acquired with the camera in movie mode:

22 The Window-Sill Through Double Glazing (WSTDG) Observatory Once you have realized that you can electronically enhance image contrast, some unconventional approaches open up. I suffer from a neurological problem that often prevents me sleeping. One of the best palliatives is distraction, and what better distraction could there be than the night sky? However, it takes some determination to get up and get dressed in the early hours, so I tried an alternative strategy. Our house faces south-ish over a large garden. So, mounting a small telescope on the window-sill of the spare bedroom enables observation in comfort at all times of the night. You have to look through the glass though, as if you looked through an open window, the air currents would ruin the seeing. The first go was with a 76mm reflector seen below with the camera attached. Here are a couple of images of the moon and the Orion Nebula with this set-up.

23 Things have now moved on. The next image is using a 4 refractor through the double glazing, but not on the window-sill. The latest WSTDG instrument is an 80mm f/5 refractor with an equatorial drive which does fit on the window-sill, and that is where the final image comes from. So, in conclusion, the PD camera is a great low-cost bit of kit enabling all sorts of imaging to be done very easily and quickly. Not professional quality, but huge fun! Roger Samworth 16/04/2015

24 Video Camera Astronomy and the Phil Dyer Colour Camera Roger Samworth Requirements Deep sky & planetary Portable Simple to use No need for accurate tracking I only have an alt az Go To, not an equatorial Quick to produce results = Instant gratification!

25 Integrating Video Cameras 2 different methods Long exposures ( = on chip integration ) Off chip integration (integrating video cameras) PD is an integrating colour video camera Can also do off chip integration with Registax or similar. Found best results so far using internal camera stacking plus Registax The PD Colour Camera

26 Stills mode Takes a series of exposures at 1/50 th second Internally stacks and processes up to 1024 of these 1/50 th second frames. Mount only has to track well (if at all) for 20 seconds. Take as many of these 20 second frames as you like and stack them in Registax, or something similar I usually take around 10, giving a total exposure of 200 seconds or so. Movie mode Record the individual frames as an.avi movie. Brighter objects such as the moon or planets. Use Registax to stack them. Faster shutter speeds possible to keep distortion from atmospheric wobble down. Generally, I use around 3000 frames.

27 The Question of Contrast With images in electronic form, all sorts of image processing options are available. For deep sky, improve the contrast of the images, usually non linearly, by using a gamma function or similar. I use GIMP 2 to process my images and in that software it is badged curves. See Imaging Deep Sky Objects with the Phil Dyer Colour Video Camera on the web site. The Question of Contrast You can also sharpen images with dramatic effect on planetary images. Note none of these processes adds anything to the image that was not there originally, they simply emphasise or suppress features.

28 Image Examples Image Examples

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38 The Window Sill Through Double Glazing (WSTDG) Observatory Unconventional approaches now possible. Our house faces south ish over a large garden. So, mounting a small telescope on the window sill of the spare bedroom enables observation in comfort at all times of the night. Look through the glass With open window, air currents ruin the seeing. The first go was with a 76mm reflector. The Window Sill Through Double Glazing (WSTDG) Observatory

39 WSTDG Examples WSTDG Examples

40 WSTDG Examples WSTDG Examples

41 WSTDG Examples WSTDG Examples Not got polar alignment quite right tricky from inside!

42 Leo Triplet from Outside Leo Triplet Inspiration!

43 Conclusion So, in conclusion, the PD camera is a great low cost bit of kit enabling all sorts of imaging to be done very easily and quickly. Not professional quality, but huge fun!

44 Imaging Deep Sky Objects with the Phil Dyer Colour Video Camera This comprises 3 stages: 1) Image acquisition 2) Image stacking 3) Image processing 1) Image Acquisition The PD camera basically takes a 1/50th second exposure at 640X480. It can internally stack up to 1024 of these frames controlled by the "senseup" parameter, taking about 20 seconds. For faint DSOs, this is the setting I use. There is lots of free software on the web for processing the data, and many different ways of processing, but following is an example of what I normally do. I just hacked all this, so there is no claim that it is the best way! 2) Image stacking I normally take up to about 10 of the above frames and stack them in Registax 5, which I generally prefer to Registax 6. 3) Image processing You can also process the data in Registax, but generally I prefer to use image editing software. Photoshop is the standard for this, but I use GIMP, which is free and well documented on the web. So, here we go! a) Stacking in Registax 5. This is a 1024 frame grab of M51 in Canes Venatici.

45 9 of these frames were loaded into Registax. We also have to load a dark frame that is used by Registax to subtract out noise. I save the camera frames as.png files which is fine for Registax. However, the dark frame is needed as.bmp. So, I acquire a 1024 frame dark fame with the camera with the telescope cap on as.png, load it into Paint, and then save it as a.bmp. I also use a dark frame factor of 0.5, which seems to give better results.

46 Next, we select an alignment box: Do Align, Limit and Optimise and stack. I set the Lowest Quality to 50 to ensure we used all 9 frames. Then save the resultant stacked image as a.png

47 b) Image processing Now we open GIMP and select the stacked image from Registax: Firstly, I applied "curves" to stretch the exposure to get something to work with. Select "curves":

48 Adjust the transform to suppress noise and stretch the exposure a bit. We will repeat this later: If we stretch it a lot, we will distort the colours, so we now decompose the image onto 3 layers "Hue", "Saturation" and "Value". (HSV).

49 We want to work on the "Value" layer, that is the brightness or "luminance" of the image. So we select,"layer", "stack" and bring the "value" layer to the top.

50 We can now apply "curves" to this: We can now see noise as "stripy" vertical artefacts. We can suppress this by applying a horizontal gaussian blur:

51 Now follow this with a "selective Gaussian blur" from the same drop-down as the Gaussian blur that applies smoothing to the parts of the image where there is no character.

52 We have now "flattened" the image, so we can apply "curves" again:

53 We are now ready to recompose the layers:

54 I used a diagonal to acquire the image, so to get it upright it needs flipping vertically:

55 Then we crop it:

56 Now export the image as a.png

57 I usually re-size the result back to 640X480-ish using "Office", but " Paint" will also do it,as will virtually all image editing software. I also turned down the saturation a little. Done! Roger Samworth 2/2/15