Description
Product Overview
Photography Performance
AP260MM-Pro a cooled, back-illuminated, CMOS camera based on the Sony IMX571 sensor with native 16-bit A/D and 3.76um pixels.
- Ultra-high dynamic range, superb full well capacity of 75ke
- Ultra-low 1.1e- noise at high gain and 3.5e- noise at low gain
- Zero Amp-Glow, extremely low dark current
- 16-bit ADC sensor
APS-C Format
This is a 26MP camera with a small pixel size of 3.76, but also the incredible ability to determine a large depth of 50Ke. The sensor’s dimension is 23.5 mm * 15.7 mm. The diagonal is 28.3 mm. The small pixels and round camera body of AP260MM plus the APS-C size sensor make the AP260MM a best matching component for the HyperStar and RASA optical systems.
Native On-chip 16bit ADC
The Sony IMX571 sensor has on-chip 16-bit A/D for highest resolution of greyscale. The output is real 16-bits with 65536 levels. Compared to 12-bit and 14-bit A/D, 16-bits provides higher sampling resolution, which will significantly improve the image sharpness and contrast, and also create smoother and more natural contrast transitions (as well as color gradients when using different types of filters). At high gain, the camera yields close to 1e-/ADU with no sample error and low read noise.
IMX571 Backlit Sensor
The back-lit CMOS image sensor of Sony improves sensitivity and noise reduction – the key factors to improve image quality. This does this by radically reflecting the basic pixel structure from the front lighting for back lighting, while the advantages of CMOS image sensors such as low power consumption and high-speed operation still retains.
With a conventional front-illumination structure, the metal wiring and transistors on the surface of the silicon substrate forming the photosensitive region of the sensor (photodiode), the photon collection performed by the on-chip lens hinder. A backlit structure minimizes the degradation of the sensitivity to the optical angle reaction, while the amount of light is increased, which occurs due to the lack of obstacles such as metal wiring and transistors in each pixel. These components were moved to the back-side of the silicon substrate.
Ultra Low Read Noise
1.1e- Noise at High gain, 3.5e- Noise at Low Gain. The AP260MM has only 0.7 electron of read noise at highest gain and 6.8 FPS at full resolution readout speed. One electron of read noise means the camera can achieve a SNR>3 at only 4 to 6 photons. This is perfect performance when conditions are photon limited, i.e., short exposures, narrow band imaging, etc., making this large area sensor ideal for sky surveys and time domain astronomy. Besides, AP260MM has a 2CMS mode, the readout noise can be better decreased under the extended full-well mode.
Zero Amp Glow
The back-illuminated Sony Exmor sensor has about twice the QE of similar front illuminated sensors. The AP260MM has zero amp glow. In addition, the dark current is only 0.0005e/pixel/sec @ -20C., even with high gain, long exposure imaging, you don’t have to worry about the trouble of the amp glow.
Anti-Dew Heater
In the AP260MM-Pro camera, there is a polyimide heater with the protective window. It can help avoid any potential annoying dew or freezing, depending on the environment where you capture images. The heater’s power of about 5W. If you want to save power, you can turn it off at any time.
Two-Stage TEC Cooling, Ultra-Low Dark Current
Due to the use of two-stage TEC cooling, AP260MM-Pro can reduce the temperature of the CMOS sensor to more than 35 degrees Celsius lower than the ambient temperature, and can greatly reduce the generation of dark current and sensor noise even under extended exposure time.
Unique dark current suppression technology can greatly reduce dark current noise. At a cooling temperature of 0 ° C, the dark current noise is only 0.0022e / s / pixel. This means that a 300s exposure will only produce 0.7e of dark current noise, which is less than the readout noise. At a cooling temperature of -20 ° C, the dark current can even be reduced to 0.00012e/s/pixel, this value is completely negligible.
Please note that the camera needs to be connected to an external 11-15v power supply to enable the cooling function. We recommend that you use a 3A 12V DC adapter (5.5*2.1mm, center pole positive) or 11-15V lithium battery to power the camera. If you don’t have one, please click the accessory series to buy a 12V power adapter. There are 4 different standards in different countries. Please make sure to select the correct adapter when placing an order.
USB3.0 & 256M DDR3 Memory
AP260MM-Pro is equipped with USB 3.0 transmission interface and built-in 256MB DDR3 cache to ensure stable and safe data transmission.
Mechanical Diagram
Items in The Packing Box
Drivers and Softwares
Please install the newest camera drivers and many DSO and Planetary capture softwares.
https://www.astronomy-camera.com/software-drivers
Sample Images
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