Focus on Solar imaging!

Apollo series is the world’s first camera line designed specifically for solar photography, named after Apollo.
The Apollo series features Sony sensors with global shutters and a focus on monochrome sensors.

Apollo-M MINI is a solar camera developed by Player One Astronomy, which adopts the Sony IMX429 2/3” format monochrome sensor. The 4.5um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 24.8Ke with a total of 2.8MP  (the resolution is 1944*1472), and the diagonal is 11mm.

Technology Pregius

IMX429 sensor is based on Pregius 3rd Generation. According to the introduction of technical documents, pixel size of 3rd Gen usually is 4.5um, and full well is 25Ke.

Format

IMX429 has 2/3″ format, this size is between IMX178 and IMX174.

Taille de pixel

4.5um pixel size is smaller than IMX174 camera, which means it can works provide higher resolution in same focal length.

Mode HCG

Apollo-M MINI has HCG mode, when Gain>71 HCG will open automatically.

2nd Gen – Sensor Tilt Plate

When taking solar photograph with prominence telescope, the Newton ring is annoying. Smoother solar image without Newton ring could be taken by adjusting the focal plate. Get a much smaller field curvature of the telescope.

256M DDR3 Cache

Player One Astronomy cameras are the first one who adpots the DDR3 cache in all planetary cameras in the world! It helps stabilize and secure data transmission, it effectively avoids frame dropping and greatly reduces readnoise.

With the DDR3 cache, the camera does not have high demands on computing needs any longer, it will still has excellent performance even if it is connected to a USB 2.0 port.

DPS technology

The planetary cameras from Player One Astronomy have DPS (Dead Pixel Suppression) technology. The DPS is anaylse many dark frames to find out thoes fixed abnormal pixel and record the map in camera memory. In imaging, each exposure frames, thoes position of dead pixels will be given a median value according to the active pixels around that abnormal pixel.

Passive Cooling System

Solar cameras working in daylight, temperature could be much higher than night. Heat of global shutter sensors will be a problem, especially some big format like IMX432. Player One add a new feature called Passive Cooling System to conduct the heat from the sensor out.

Overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanism

Player One cameras produced by the number one player ensures the safety of your camera and other equipment through overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanisms.

Data Port

When the camera is connected to the USB3.0 interface and full-resolution preview is used, it can reach 164 FPS in RAW8 mode (10bit ADC). When recording images, since the actual writing speed will be affected by the writing speed of the hard disk itself, when the hard disk writing speed is slow, the recording may not reach the theoretical speed. It is recommended that you use a high-quality solid state drive to record data to give full play to the performance of the camera.

Use the ST4 guide cable to connect the camera and the AUTO GUIDE port of the equatorial mount to do guiding.

Performance

Bruit de lecture

Regarding readout noise, we solemnly promise that all values are obtained from actual tests.  And for users, you could use Sharpcap 4 for testing. SC4 has a function called Sensor Analysis, provide a very simple way to test readout noise.

After many rigorous readout noise tests, this camera can reach a low readout noise of 1.45e at a gain of 380.

If you are interested in readout noise testing, you may try it yourself, which is very simple.

Courbe QE

Absolute Peak Value is about 77%.

Téléchargement

• Téléchargement des pilotes et logiciels : http://player-one-astronomy.com/service/software/
• Téléchargement des manuels : http://player-one-astronomy.com/service/manuals/

Caractéristics

• Sensor: SONY IMX429 2/3" CMOS (mono)
• Diagonal: 11mm
• Total Pixels: 2.8 Mega Pixels
• Max Resolution: 1944×1472
• Pixel Size: 4.5μm
• Chip Size: 8.75mm×6.6mm
• Frame Rate: 84FPS（12bit）
• Shutter: Global shutter
• Exposure Range: 32μs-2000s
• Readout Noise: Updating soon
• QE Peak: ≈77%
• Full Well: 25k e
• ADC: 12 bit
• Data Port: USB3.0/USB2.0
• Adapter: 1.25″ / M42X0.75
• Back Focal Length: 12.5mm
• Protective Window: D32*2MM High Quality AR Plus (Anti Reflection) Multi-Layer Coating
• Diameter: 66mm
• Weight: 180g
• Resolution and FPS:
  Under USB3.0 mode
  Resolution 12bit ADC
  1944×1472 84FPS
  More resolution options could be setup in capture softewares!

Delivery