Versatility is a desirable characteristic for an astronomy camera; so we set out to look at the versatility of the SV305M Pro, and to search for issues.
In addition to having been implemented in AstroDMx Capture Capture by Nicola; we have been testing the functionality of the SDK so that SVBONY can fix the invevitable issues that we are uncovering. It would be naive to think that a new camera will work correctly in all aspects at this stage in its development.
We tested the pre-production SV305M Pro camera on different types of astronomical objects:
- The Crescent Moon
- The Sun in Ca K-line light
- The Sun in H-alpha light
- The Eagle nebula
- M3 and M10 globular clusters
A Bresser Messier-AR-102-xs/460 ED, f/4.5 refractor was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount and The SV305M Pro camera was placed at the focus.
AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture a 10,000 frame SER file of the 5.4% waxing, crescent Moon. The best 10% of the frames were stacked in Autostakkert!
Click on an image to have a closer view.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture capturing lunar data
The resulting image was wavelet processed in Registax 6 and post-processed in the Gimp 2.10
Final image of the 5.4% waxing Moon
A Coronado CaK PST calcium K-line solar telescope was mounted on a Celestron AVX mount. The SV305M Pro was mounted at the focus.
AstroDMx Capture was use to capture 1000-frame SER files of each of two overlapping panes of the Sun.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture saving solar Ca K-line data
The two panes were stitched in Microsoft ICE, wavelet processed in Registax 6, and post-processed in the Gimp 2.10
The solar disk in Ca K-line light
Active region AR2833 can be seen emerging around the limb, and the regions of high magnetic flux in the chromospheric network are also clearly visible.
A Coronado Solarmax II, 60, BF15 H-alpha scope was mounted on the Celestron AVX mount and the SV305M Pro was placed at the focus. Two overlapping, 3000-frame SER files were captured using AstroDMx Capture for Windows. The best 25% of the frames in the SER files were stacked in Autostakkert! and wavelet processed in Registax 6. The two panes were stitched automatically using Hugin Panorama creator, and the final image was post processed and colorised in the Gimp 2.10.
The solar disk in H-alpha light
A Bresser Messier-AR-102-xs/460 ED, f/4.5 refractor was mounted on an AVX mount and the SV305M Pro fitted with a narrowband H-alpha filter was placed at the focus.
AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture 45 x 60s FITS exposures of the Eagle nebula, along with matching dark-frames. Also bias frames were captured.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows capturing data on M16, the Eagle nebula.
The FITS files were stacked with dark-frame and bias-frame correction in Affinity Photo. The resulting image was post processed in Affinity Photo, Topaz sharpen and the Gimp 2.10.
Final image of M16, the Eagle nebula
The ‘Pillars of creation’ are very prominent in this image.
A Bresser Messier-AR-102-xs/460 ED, f/4.5 refractor was mounted on an AVX mount and the SV305M Pro fitted with a UV/IR cut filter was placed at the focus.
AstroDMx Capture for Windows was used to capture 53 x 30s FITS exposures of the globular cluster M3, along with matching dark-frames. Also bias frames were captured.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows capturing data on M3
The FITS files were stacked with dark-frame and bias-frame correction in Affinity Photo. The resulting image was post processed in Affinity Photo, Topaz sharpen and the Gimp 2.10.
Final image of M3
AstroDMx Capture for Windows was then used to capture 90 x 30s FITS exposures of the globular cluster M10, along with matching dark-frames. Also bias frames were captured.
Screenshot of AstroDMx Capture for Windows capturing data on M10
The FITS files were stacked with dark-frame and bias-frame correction in Affinity Photo. The resulting image was post processed in Affinity Photo, Topaz sharpen and the Gimp 2.10.
Final image of M10
Versatility is important in an astronomy camera. The SV305M Pro proved in these tests, to be a very versatile camera; having produced results on Solar, Lunar and Deep Sky objects.
There are issues in the SDK that need to be resolved before the camera can be released onto the market, but hopefully, with the information that we will supply to SVBONY, these issues will be resolved.
Meanwhile, we shall continue with the testing of the camera.
