Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product G3 Orion
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Or ion ® StarShoot ™ G3 Dee p S pace Imaging Ca meras Color #53 08 2, Monochrome # 5 30 83 INSTRUCTION MANUAL Providing Exceptional Consumer Optical Products Since 1975 OrionT elescopes.com Customer Suppor t (800 ) 676-1343 E-mail: suppor t@telescope.
2 3 1. Intr oduction W elcome to the exciting w or ld of astro-imaging. Y our ne w StarShoot G3 Deep Space Imaging camera is capab le of capturing impressive celestial objects like galaxies , star clus- ters, and neb ulae, as well as the planets, Moon, and the Sun (with an optional solar filter).
4 5 Computer The G3 requires a PC to operate the camera. F or astro-imaging in the field at night, a laptop computer is highly recommended. The included software is Camera Studio which requires Windows XP , Vista or Windows 7 to operate.
6 7 Once your prerequisites ha ve been installed, you will be prompted to install the G3 ASCOM driver and Camera Studio software (Figure 4.3). Note that ASCOM is only required if you intend to use the camer a in another program, such as Neb ulosity and MaxIm DL, or if you wish to use the camera as an autoguider .
8 9 Capture –Color:Raw , YCbCr , RGB (forStarShoot G3 Color only) These modes determine what kind of images will be captured. If you are using the StarShoot G3 Color , we recommend alwa ys capturing in R aw to allow f or image calibration later (See “Image Processing – Calibrate Raws”).
10 11 The f ollowing sections will describe more software f eatures which you will encounter during your imaging session, and later on when you are ready to process your images .
12 13 CCD temperature will naturally heat up on its own. T o star t with, set the T arget (°C) to about 7°C lower than the current CCD T emperature , to allow yourself some margin f or outdoor temperature changes. (Figure 12) 5 . Let the camera temperature stabilize .
14 15 Naming conv entions are most impor tant for StarShoot G3 Monochrome users who ma y be using LRGB or narrowband filters . Change your file name to indicate what filter you are imaging through. For e xample, Dummbell_Luminance, or Dummbell_ Red, etc.
16 17 imager , you ma y choose to skip this step f or the time being. Vignetting Vignetting (Figure 15.1) in a telescope re veals edge-darkening in the astroimage. The sensitiv e CCD chip can easily detect vignetting through a telescope, e ven specializ ed astrographs .
18 19 Conv er t to Color (For the StarShoot G3 Color only) 1 . With your calibr ated images still open, goto the Process men u and select Color , then CMYG Raw conv ersion. We recommend using the def ault values (Figure 18), but y ou may adjust them to your liking.
20 21 When you ha ve made y our selection f or Expor t , click Export and specify the file name and f older destination, then click Sa ve . 6. Using the StarShoot G3 as an Autoguider The StarShoot G3 also functions as a very high performance autoguider .
22 23 8. Specifications StarShoot G3Color CCD Sensor : Sony ® ICX419AKL Color Sensor f or mat: 1/2" Pix el array: 752 x 582 (437,664 total) Pix el size: 8.
One-Y ear Limited W arranty This Orion StarShoot G3 Deep Space Imaging Camera is warranted against def ects in mate- rials or workmanship for a period of one year from the date of purchase. This w arranty is for the benefit of the original retail purchaser only .
An important point after buying a device Orion G3 (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought Orion G3 yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data Orion G3 - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, Orion G3 you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get Orion G3 will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of Orion G3, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime Orion G3.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with Orion G3. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device Orion G3 along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
