9.equipments

8/3/2019 9.Equipments

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Night Sky Video Observation Equipments

Video camera Lens

A/D converter

PC for UFOCapture

Housing/Mount

Diffracting grating (optional)


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Video cameraMost popular cameras for night sky motion detection*.

- Monochrome high sensitivity c/cs mount CCD camera (NTSC/PAL)

ex. Watec Neptune 100, Watec 902H2 Ultimate

Rarely used cameras (low sensitivity)

- Color high sensitivity c/cs mount CCD camera (NTSC/PAL)

ex. Watec 221S, 231S2,250D2

- Hi definition (not compressing) digital interface camera

(resolution is limited by UBS2.0/IEEE1394 bandwidth now)

ex. Imaging source DMK31AF03AS

Expected cameras (still having noise problem on low cost models)

- Monochrome EM-CCD cooled camera.- Color 3 EM-CCD cooled camera ex. GOTO NC-R550a

* Hi sensitivity(< 0.001lux) , Low noise (30db > S/N) , Fast frame rate (>= 25fps) is required

for motion detection. Frame staking cameras, CCD still cameras, web cams, compressing

cameras or camera that has persistence of image are not usable.


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Color camera capture sample

Watec 250D2 + Yakumo 17mm F0.95

Watec 231S + 25mmF0.95

..


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LensMost popular lenses * (discontinued)

CBC HG0608FCS-HSP 6mmF0.8 CS mount : 60degFOV forCCD : best wide view lens.

CBC HG0808FCS-HSP 8mmF0.8 CS mount : 45degFOV forCCD : best standard lens.

CBC HG1208FCS-HSP 12mmF0.8 CS mount : 30degFOV forCCD : most accurate lens.

CBC HG0308FCS-HSP 3.8mmF0.8 CS mount : 90degFOV forCCD : suit for zenith direction.

Substituting lens

FUJINON YV2.7x2.9LR4D-SA2 2.9-8mm (varifocus) F0.95

-- can be used in range of 5 to 8mm with CCD

Narrow lenses ( suit only for the close up of a part of a meteor trajectory or TLE )

YAKUMO YMV1795N 17mmF0.95 C mount manual iris

YAKUMO YMV2595N 25mmF0.95 C mount manual iris


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Lens selection guideIris type

auto iris lens (dc/video) is widely used, because they protect CCD from direct Sun light, andreduce the effect of Moon light and climate change.

F (aperture)

F < 1.0 is required. There is big difference between F0.8 and F1.2.

f (focal length) /FOV width

30deg to 90deg lens are selected because of their measurement accuracy.

FOV (deg) 180 90 60 45 30 23 15

f (mm) CCD 1.9 3.8 6 8 12 17 25

Basic accuracy

(deg/pixel , H=720)

0.25 0.13 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.02

UA2 Typical accuracy

(deg / 0.3pixel)

0.1 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.006

S.M. magnitude

(on 902H2U)

1 3 5 6 8 9 10

Comment F < 1.0 is notavailable.

Bad accuracy.

Usable onlyfor zenithdirection

Best lens for video meteorobservation.

Start or end pointbecomes outside ofFOV too often

( 6mm lens x 6 + 3.8mm zenith lens almost cover all sky. Earth rotation = 0.004 deg/sec )


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A/D converter

Requirements for UFOCapture

- The device driver must provide un-compressed brightness information

through DirectShow video capture interface on Windows.

( so called software encoding type capture device that uses a inner video format one of

UYUV,YUY2,I420,IYUV,YV12,DVSD,DVHD,RGB8,Y800 )

- The driver should support multiple simultaneous operation if you want run 2 captures on 1 PC

simultaneously. (Microsofts built-in IEEE1394 capture driver supports this)

Recommended Model (Windows 2000/Xp/Vista/7)

IEEE1394 video capture device. Ex. Canopus ADVC-55

Other possible models (depend on the Windows version and TV format of the country)

USB2.0 capture device.

PCI capture board.

Card bus capture card.

..


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PC for UFOCapture

Requirements of UFOCapture (UFOCapture uses almost full performance of latest PCs)

- OS: Windows 2000/Xp (recommended) /Vista/7 (all background task should be stopped)

- CPU: Pentium4 >2.5GHz, Pentium M/Core series > 2.0GHz

- HDD: fast inner 7200rpm drive > 80GB (500GB 1TB/year station)

(also HDD is the best long term preserving device of original videos).

- Time keeper: NTP or GPS time keeper should be used.

Requirements of 2 cameras on 1 PC

-Capture device supports multiple simultaneousoperation.

-CPU should be multi core or HT

-HDD should be dedicate drive for each camera

-One IEEE1394 interface chip should be used

for one camera only.


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Housing and Mount

Nagano1(by Masuzawa) : 5 cameras

Weather proof housing is very important for stable observation.

Also more rigid camera mount is preferable not to be vibrated by wind.

(Direct Sun light did not harm cameras with auto iris lens, ever.)

..

Tokyo1(by SonotaCo) : 8 cameras


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Diffracting gratingSpectrum of fire balls can be

taken by using transmission type

diffracting grating.

Here is a sample of using

Edmonds 500 lpm polyester

grating film in front of 3.8mm

and 6mm lens.

500lpm + 3.8mmF0.8+CCD 500lpm + 6mmF0.8 + CCD

May be this will be very beautiful if using an ultra hi-sensitivity color camera! It will be a meteor with rainbows. ..

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