Featuring the sony icx829al exview ii ccd the lodestar x2 has the same. Lodestar learning corporation accepts direct orders for lodestar in the form of institutional purchase orders or checks. Starlight xpress ultrastar imaging guide camera first. Imaging source dfk and dmk cameras are supported by sharpcap. A control panel will open and you can set an exposure time from the list. Unfortunately both of these programs are windows only. All of the cameras listed above can be used to take great highresolution planetary images with live view that recorded at 5x with the software program listed below. A camera and specialized software monitors the position of a star and nudges the mount automatically to keep the position of the guide star on track. We are focused on providing compliant technology solutions that complement our customers workflow and enhance their ability to serve their clients anywhere in the country. Their original lodestar guiders have been around for a long long time, and.
This may seem counter intuitive at first, but planetary rely very heavily on frame rate and small pixel size, whereas deep space cameras. The imaging source astronomy camera software downloads. Selecting a guide scope and autoguiding camera for. Please login or register to watch, comment, or like this article. Because of the high sensitivity and high dynamic range characteristics of the sony icx829, the starlight xpress lodestar x2 makes a superb electronic finder and planetary imaging camera as well as a splendid autoguider. Using a fast video camera, noisy and slightly distorted images are obtained, that can be combined into a single high quality image using this software. Qhy6, sx lodestar, atik atk16 and the imaging source, as well as filter wheels on linux xagyl and starlight xpress and it also works on mac os x. Instruction manual orion starshoot solar system color. Pipp downloads pipp planetary imaging preprocessor. The creative minds at starlight xpress have had a tough time coming up with a way to improve on such a superb product. This book on cdrom will show you how to take planetary images with your liveview equipped dslr. Fixed crash when planetary processing a video with multiple completely black frames at the start. Capture stunning astrophotos of objects in our solar system with our 3.
New ultrastar imagingguide camera from starlight xpress. Selecting a guide scope and autoguiding camera for astrophotography. Starlight xpress lodestar x2 autoguider first light optics. Is the lodestar x2 camera for autoguiding the same lodestar x2 camera that you can use for astro video imaging. Planetary imaging workshop association of lunar and. Downloads sharpcap runs on microsoft windows you should choose the version of sharpcap to install based on your version of windows. Starlight xpress lodestar x2c autoguider color opt.
Starlight xpress lodestar x2 autoguider autoguider. Phd guiding phd guiding is designed to be push here dummy simple, yet provide powerful, intelligent autoguiding of your telescope for both pcs and macs. We make every effort to ensure our prices are accurate. Its an incredible piece of software that continues to get better. Syzygy is a jacksonville, fl based software development company with focus in business process management. Fixed filename bug when writing rgbsplit image files with quality value in filenames. Grow your business generate sales leads, manage your sales team and track revenue via lodestar s title sales manager. Sensitivity is key, but combined with the incredibly low noise of the lodestar x2, finding a guide star has just become even easier. Sharpcap is an easytouse and powerful astronomy camera capture tool. The lodestar x2 is a new and improved version of the highly regarded lodestar usb2.
Below you can download device drivers and application software for the imaging source and celestron skyris cameras. Sharpcap supports flycapture based point grey cameras. Pipps main purpose is to crop each image frame and select only the best quality frames to reduce the memory and processing requirements of the stacking software. Planetary imaging requires combining many individual images, and having an equatorial mount will prevent the planet from drifting out of the field of view of the camera during the time it takes to acquire the large number.
Thanks to sharpcap lunar, planetary, solar and deep sky. Cooling of the ccd to reduce dark current is unnecessary at the short exposure times common to planetary imaging and autoguiding, but there remains the possibility of bright pixels in an image that can raise the threshold of brightness required for the most sensitive guiding performance. Lodestar learning corporation, 16270 110th street north, stillwater, mn, 55082. I took these lodestar x2c images of m81 and m82 a few weeks back before i started a bunch of travelling and only had a chance to put them up now. I set up the following system, which combines hardware and software for. No other product offers such a comprehensive high performance autoguiding and planetary imaging solution at a comparable price. First light report lodestar x2 and lodestar live software. The great list of astrophotography software reddit. Starlight live software for use with sx mono and colour cameras.
Alternatively, phd2, lodestar live, astroart and maximdl all support the ultrastar c and may be. Im pretty new to the lodestar x2c, but ive been very impressed with it and the lodestar live software so far. Starshoot planetary imaging camera and autoguider orion. Connect your mount, your camera, select a star, and start guiding. Meade, william optics, atik, imaging source, starlight xpress, adm, moonlite, catseye, hutech and others. Handbook for the sx lodestar guide camera starlight xpress.
Although the lodestar is primarily intended as a high performance guider, it makes a superb electronic finder and planetary imaging camera. However, at that point i am thinking of hacking around to add control of the filter wheel. Imaging source cameras are now sold under the celestron brand as skyris and neximage cameras these are also supported by sharpcap. The lodestar x2c autoguider color by starlight xpress. When used with the starlight live software, the camera can be easily configured to take a series of continuous short exposures, automatically adding the images together as it goes, building up the image in front of your very eyes. The lpig is an excellent camera for autoguiding and solar system astrophotography. The starlight xpress lodestar x2 autoguider is a popular guide camera for. Then came autostakkert which is easier to learn and does a better job at stacking but that is all it does. Phd2 is telescope guiding software that simplifies the process of tracking a guide star, letting you concentrate on other aspects of deepsky imaging or spectroscopy. Sensitivity with an impressive 77% qe, and large pixels, the lodestar x2 just sucks up those photons. Syzygy develops custom software for companies, identifying their business processes, optimizing those processes, and implementing a workflow. Lodestar x2 autoguider ontario telescope and accessories.
Most everyone doing planetary imaging will recommend that you use as. Is the lodestar x2 camera posted in eaa and night vision. However, sony have now upgraded the icx429 to the icx829, with considerably improved qe and read noise. Ideally, it works better in combination with castrator, and i suggest you to use this program to center and refocus the global. Using a starlight xpress lodestar x2 autoguider for astrophotography.
Times can be extended if you align by feature more later two ways to calculate. Downloads sharpcap lunar, planetary, solar and deep. When it comes to the autoguider market, the lodestar has long been regarded as the cream of the crop. Ive captured melotte 15 and the fishhead nebula, but this is the first time i. Let the monochrome lunar, planetary imager and guider lpig unleash the inner astrophotographer in you. A wide range of features makes sharpcap suitable for many types of astro imaging including planetary, lunar, solar, deep sky and eaa electronically assisted astronomy.
The original lodestar uses the icx429 exview chip from sony and offers excellent sensitivity. For that type of imaging, one of the best programs is registax, but others use avistack. Added option to only generate dib codec avi files with safe frame widths to work around buggy software such as vlc media player and avistack 2. Starlight xpress trius pro 814 with sxmfw1t and lodestar. Astronomy shed forums whove used the software, suggested new features and helped me track down bugs. Generate sales leads, manage your sales team and track revenue via lodestars title sales manager. Cameras for planetary imaging have a very different set of requirements than those of deep space imaging cameras. These are new lodestar x2 format cameras that use the latest sony icx825 ccd with excellent qe and sensitivity. Both mono and singleshot colour versions are available. The sti along with the bundled software provides a great entrylevel product to the sbig family, and are an ideal complement to sbigs popular st8300 ccd camera.
The slim lodestar or ultrastar usb ccd option neutronoptics xray or neutron cameras can be supplied with an optional slim ccd unit, with either 752x580 lodestar or 92x1040 ultrastar pixels. Pipp is a windows application designed for preprocessing planetary images before stacking them with image stacking software such as registax. Everything what you will need for asi camera control, imaging, guiding and processing at one place. Is a free program and software of planetary and moon stacking in levels of grey intended to produce excellent results of stacking with least possible efforts. It can be used with dedicated astronomy cameras, webcams and usb frame grabbers.
Sign up for our newsletter to get the best deals and latest news. Its goal is to be able to get a simple, fast imaging software on linux platforms, where there are. Lodestar x2 new images imaging deep sky stargazers. So youll have to use something like bootcamp or parallels to run a. Includes software cd, 6 usb cable, and 7 autoguiding cable. Starlight express recently released their lodestarx2 guide camera. Zwo asi, qhy5, qhy6, sx lodestar, atik atk16 and the imaging source, as well as filter. The sti comes with fully functional versions of software bisques the sky version 5 and ccdsoft, versions 5. The lodestar x2 is an upgraded version of the very popular lodestar autoguider. The starlight xpress lodestar x2 is a very compact guider which is powered and operated via a single usb2. The planetary nebula popped with detail, wisps of filaments and even the outer. Developing software is mostly fun, but it also takes up nearly all of my spare time.
The chances are that if you have a more recent model that is not listed above, it will work similarly. Starlight xpress lodestar x2 autoguider telescopes. Planetary imaging cameras for sale skies unlimited llc. Submit the purchase order or check to the following address. Combined with sbigs own ccdops and planetmaster software for high resolution planetary imaging, this bundled suite of imaging and planetarium software provides customers with a powerful and comprehensive set of tools. Qhy5lii study posted in ccdcmos astro camera imaging. Windows, mac and linux usb drivers, ascom drivers, latest firmware and camera control and processing software for all zwo devices. Michael at starlightxpress for providing a lodestar x2 to test with. Same recipe as in my other lodestar images that i have posted previously i. The ultrastar is an excellent entry level imaging camera. Best astrophotography software stacking planetaryimages. Planetary imager is a software for planetary imaging. For obtaining the best planetary images, however, we do recommend an equa.
Planetary rotation can affect the image in as little as 5 minutes theoretically, capture time should not exceed the time it takes the planet to rotate through one pixel in reality, longer times are fine seeing, arcsecpixel vary experimentation. It explains the basics of highresolution planetary imaging and gives stepbystep directions on how to shoot exciting pictures the sun and moon and fascinating planets like jupiter, saturn and mars. A barlow lens may be required for imaging the planets. Many people then use registax for the processing step and possibly other image processing software as well. Supported cameras sharpcap lunar, planetary, solar and. The innovative minds at starlight xpress have been trying to improve the iconic lodestar since its premiere. As an upgrade to the original lodestar autoguider, the lodestar x2 has the sony icx829 exview chip with improved sensitivity and quantum efficiency 77% for a result if doubled sensitivity over the original lodestar autoguider, adding a full star magnitude to the minimal detectable star. Lodestar x2 and lodestar live software demo youtube. The lodestar x2 also provides an optoisolated output connection for direct control of most mounts via their autoguider sockets. For years, the lodestar has been held in the highest regard as being the best autoguider on the market. Planetary imaging its easy you just have to learn a few things first.
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