Alcor System OMEA User manual

© Alcor System 1
OMEA “All Sky” Camera
Installation and user manual
June 20th, 2016 re ision

© Alcor System 2
Table of Contents
1 Camera installation ......................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 System installation .................................................................................................................................................. 4
1.2 Camera Features ................................................................................................................................................... 10
1.3 Camera optical settings ......................................................................................................................................... 10
1.3.1 Fixed iris settings ........................................................................................................................................... 10
1.3.2 Auto-iris ......................................................................................................................................................... 10
1.4 O EA camera connections ................................................................................................................................... 11
1.4.1 Temperature sensor and humidity connector (#1) ....................................................................................... 12
1.4.2 Power connector and RS232 (#2).................................................................................................................. 13
1.4.3 USB connector (#3) ....................................................................................................................................... 17
2 Software ........................................................................................................................................................................ 18
2.1 Camera driver installation software ..................................................................................................................... 18
2.1.1 USB Version ................................................................................................................................................... 18
2.2 Installing the camera ActiveX interface ................................................................................................................ 20
2.3 Installing the XVID Codec video compression ....................................................................................................... 22
3 Using the camera software control .............................................................................................................................. 25
3.1 Initializing .............................................................................................................................................................. 25
3.2 Storage of files produced by the camera control software .................................................................................. 32
3.3 Camera exposure time and gain ........................................................................................................................... 34
3.3.1 anual mode ................................................................................................................................................ 35
3.3.2 Automatic mode ........................................................................................................................................... 35
3.3.3 Bayer pattern reconstruction (color camera only) ....................................................................................... 35
3.4 Image hot pixel removal using dark frame image................................................................................................. 36
3.4.1 Achieving master dark frame ........................................................................................................................ 39
3.4.2 Residual hot pixels repair/fix ........................................................................................................................ 42
3.5 Setting the overlay grid ......................................................................................................................................... 44
3.6 Cyanogen Boldwood or Sentinel cloud sensors link with camera control software ........................................... 47
3.7 agnitude per square second display image mode ............................................................................................. 48
3.8 Telescope control software link ............................................................................................................................ 50
3.1 Star count for cloud coverage estimation ............................................................................................................. 51
4 Sphere condensation heater management .................................................................................................................. 53
4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 53

© Alcor System 3
4.2 Adjusting and start-up .......................................................................................................................................... 53
5 Weather measurement module ................................................................................................................................... 58
5.1 Sensors software management ............................................................................................................................ 61
6 Camera maintenance .................................................................................................................................................... 64
6.1 Sphere cleaning ..................................................................................................................................................... 64
6.2 Camera internal desiccant replacement ............................................................................................................... 65
7 Trouble shooting ........................................................................................................................................................... 65
7.1 Camera does not deliver images ........................................................................................................................... 65
7.2 Dew inside the dome ............................................................................................................................................ 65
8 Product terms of use ..................................................................................................................................................... 66

© Alcor System 4
1Camera installation
1.1 System installation
The camera works outdoor, it is weather-tight. Warning, the system is not submersible: it is not a diving camera
diving. oreover, it is impervious to intrusion of insects (of size greater than about 50 microns).
The camera has no mechanical shutter. The heat does not cause daytime stops operation of the camera.
Please do not install the camera near a pollution source (like a chimney). Give as much exposure as possible and
avoid obstacles:
•O EA 1.3 field of view is 185 ° x 165 °, 1.8mm fisheye lens focal length provides a wide 8.9
arcmin per pixel on the sky.
•O EA 2.0 field of view is 185 ° x 175 °, 1.8mm fisheye lens focal length provides a wide 8.4
arcmin per pixel on the sky.
This version of camera has heater that can remove external condensation that can occur on sphere surface and
three sealed connectors.
The camera has three anchors on the back, these three ISO 6 not thru threaded holes by 10 mm depth. Use
the supplied screws to fix or equivalent stainless steel A4 or A2 screw.

© Alcor System 5
Fig. 1 The position of the three screws securing the USB camera (yellow holes)
There are three other "holes" that are filled with waterproof connectors, leave this space free and 100mm
underneath to allow the cables to run.
The N, S, E and W direction is defined by rotating the camera accordingly. This is up to the user to define camera
orientation according to its needs. Please perform image capture tests before attaching the camera to the pole.
The cables go straight from the camera bottom. If the cables shall be bent, respect what is shown on the picture
(Fig. 2)

© Alcor System 6
Fig. 3 Three cables straight descent.

© Alcor System 7
Fig. 4 Minimum cable radius curvature.

© Alcor System 8
The waterproof connectors connect as follows:
•Identify the number of connector pins of the camera, its type (male / female)
•Identify the number of pins of the connector cord and match.
•Identify the key pin inside the camera connector and the key at the connector cord side.
•Apply a rectilinear motion. If insertion force strength persists please repeat steps for
locating the pin number and key. Excessi e force applied to connector can cause the
destruction of the connector or a bad connection can damage the camera. In case of
damage due to trials to attach cable to the wrong connector kind, warranty could be
canceled.
Fig. 5 Key one of the three connectors (power connector).

© Alcor System 9
Fig. 6 ush the connector straight
Fig. 7 Then turn the connector’s collar in clockwise fashion

© Alcor System 10
1.2 Camera Features
The O EA 1.3 camera features a Sony CCD ICX205AL anti-blooming detector providing a resolution of 1280 x
960 pixels. The O EA 2.0 camera features a Sony CCD ICX274AL anti-blooming detector providing a resolution
of 1600 x 1200 pixels. The gain is adjustable from 2.2 to 50 e-/ADU e-/ADU by software.
1.3 Camera optical settings
The focus and the angle adjustment (tilt) of the lens with respect to the CCD are factory made. It is not possible
to perform changes from outside for tightness reasons. Access to the inner parts of the camera is not possible.
To do so, this would require dismantling the entire camera body and lens protection system.
Concerning the lens aperture, there are two possible cases: lens iris sets to fixed-aperture or be opened/closed
with two variable positions.
1.3.1 Fixed iris settings
This is a factory requirement from the customer. There are three options summarized in this table:
F / 1.4
aximum aperture
:
The sensitivity is maximized at the expense of some residual aberrations at the
edges of the image due to lens optical performance.
Configuration for small meteors.
Despite the exposure time of 0.1 ms and the lowest gain applied, the possibilities
of imaging will be limited during days on a completely clear sky (high saturation).
F / 2
Average opening
:
The sensitivity is a good tradeoff for very black site.
The optical quality is better compared to f/1.4.
This is a good compromise for weak light pollution observing sites. Imaging
during day time is still possible (saturation limited)
F/2.8
inimum Aperture
:
The sensitivity is degraded for very dark sites (no light pollution), especially for
color cameras, but is perfect for suburban sites. The optical quality is maximized.
Imaging capabilities during day time are very good.
You cannot change the aperture value from outside camera, for reasons of access sealing.
1.3.2 Auto-iris