ORION TELESCOPES & BINOCULARS StarShoot Mini G Series User manual

#51883
Welcome to the exciting world of astro-imaging.Your new StarShoot™Mini CMOS
Imaging Camera is capable of capturing professional quality astro-images of many
of your favorite celestial objects, or be used as an autoguider to accurately lock
onto stars and improve the tracking performance of your mount during a long expo-
sure photograph with another camera. Please read this instruction manual before
attempting to use the camera or install the needed software. This manual covers
installation of your camera along with basic functions of acquiring images using
the included software, as well as autoguiding using PHD2. To get the most out of
your camera using 3rd party dedicated astronomy apps coupled with the universal
ASCOM driver for the G Series Camera, please consult the software help les and
manuals included with the individual software packages available on the market.
Some of our favorite programs are mentioned below.
Orion®StarShoot™
Mini G Series CMOS Cameras
IN 665 Rev. B 11/21
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
#51883 Mini 6.3 Color
#51884 Mini 6.3 Mono
#51359 Mini 1.2mp Color
#54292 Mini 2mp Mono Autoguider
Mini 6.3 Color #51883
Mini 6.3 Mono #51884
#51458 G26 APS-C
Corporate Offices: 89 Hangar Way, Watsonville CA 95076 - USA
Toll Free USA & Canada: [phone]
International: [phone]
Customer Support: [email protected]
Copyright © 2021 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars. All Rights Reserved. No part of this product instruction or any of its contents
may be reproduced, copied, modied or adapted, without the prior written consent of Orion Telescopes & Binoculars.
AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANY

1. The StarShoot Mini
CMOS camera
The StarShoot Mini cameras are lower cost alternatives to the
larger StarShoot G10 and above cameras. They are not cooled
which means that while the inherent noise will be a small bit higher,
the size, cost, and power requirements are considerably reduced.
The StarShoot Mini 6.3mp cameras are based around the Sony
IMX 178 CMOS chip, and excel at planetary imaging because of
the super-fast USB 3.0 port frame rates and the tiny 2.4 micron
pixels. The StarShoot 2mp Mono Autoguider includes the Sony
IMX 290 sensor, as well as a USB 2.0 port. In addition, they are
capable of deepsky imaging with exposures up to 1000 seconds.
They also feature a standard SBIG autoguider port, so they can
be used as a very sensitive autoguider while imaging through a
separate camera. For the most sensitive guiding, the Mini 2.0mp
or the mono version of the 6.3mp is recommended. Autoguiding
can be done with the SS 6.3mp Color version, but sensitivity is
always higher with a mono sensor.The Mini cameras are powered
fully via the USB port on your computer.No separate power source
is necessary.
Parts List
• StarShoot Mini camera
• 1.25" nosepiece
• USB cable
• SBIG guide cable
Telescope
The StarShoot Mini can be used with most all telescopes on the
market. The Mini cameras slip into a 1.25" focuser, or can thread
directly to male c-mount threads. Caution: Be sure to always rmly
tighten the thumbscrew(s) that secure the camera in the tele-
scope focuser, or it could fall out and onto the ground! The camera
comes with a 1.25" c-mount threaded nosepiece (Figure 2) which
should be used when slipping the camera into a 1.25" focuser (or
2" focuser with a 1.25" stepdown adapter). To utilize the c-mount
threads, do not use the 1.25" nosepiece, and thread the camera
directly onto the c-mount threads.
Back-focus Requirement
The StarShoot mini cameras feature a backfocus of 17.5mm from
the front c-mount threads. This means that when threaded onto a
c-mount device, the sensor sits 17.5mm back from that threaded
connection. However, when slipped all the way into a 1.25" focuser
instead of using the threads, the sensor sits 10.5mm IN FRONT
of the lip where the 1.25" diameter section of the camera ends.
So slipping into a 1.25" focuser means the camera has a 10.5mm
FORWARD focus requirement. This information may be useful
when determining rough focus positions for different camera/
telescope congurations.
2. Software and Hardware
Installation
The software and driver must rst be downloaded from the Orion
website before plugging in the camera. Please go to: www.tele-
scope.com/Gseries to download all the relevant software for your
camera. Downloadable les include:
• StarShoot Image Capture: basic camera control program
• G series direct driver: for DirectShow applications
• G series ASCOM driver: for camera control in 3rd part astro-
imaging software.
Note it is HIGHLY recommended to install the ASCOM platform
and download the G series ASCOM driver to use with the camera.
Dedicated 3rd party camera control programs are available online
which will unlock the full astro-imaging potential of the camera.To
install the ASCOM platform, visit www.ascom-standards.org and
click the download button. Don’t forget to also install the G series
ASCOM driver from Orion’s website AFTER you install the main
ASCOM platform. When connecting to the camera in a 3rd party
program using ASCOM, choose “ASCOM StarShootG camera”
from the camera selection menu, and then the camera should
appear in the ASCOM camera selection window if the driver is
properly installed and the camera connected.Note the same driver
for all the Orion StarShoot Blue series cameras is the same, and
you may have multiple cameras listed if you also have a larger
Figure 2. The included parts of the StarShoot Mini.
Figure 1. The back panel of the StarShoot Mini 6.3mp camera.
Note the 2mp Autoguider includes a USB 2.0 port
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cooled StarShoot G series camera connected at the same time.
Be sure to connect to the appropriate camera in your software.
1. Download all relevant les from the Camera support/
download page
2. Double-click on the install .exe for the Image Capture
program, the driver, and the ASCOM driver, and follow the
onscreen directions for installation. Do not plug the camera
in until the drivers have been installed for the camera
3. Once the driver and software has been installed, plug the
camera into an available USB port
4. Windows will take a moment to recognize the USB device
plugged in, and once that is complete, you can open up
the StarShoot Image Capture program to connect to the
camera
Hardware setup
Now that the camera drivers and software are installed, it’s time to
connect the camera to the telescope, and open up the software.
Install the camera into your focuser and connect the USB cable
from the camera to an available USB port on the computer. The
StarShoot 6.3mp works best when plugged into a USB 3.0 port,
as the frame rate will be much higher. It will still work in a USB 2.0
port, but with a reduced framerate.
Focusing the camera for the rst time can be tricky, since the
camera may focus at a completely different place from where
an eyepiece focuses. It is recommended that you rst center a
bright star in a 25mm eyepiece before attaching the camera, to
be sure the camera is centered on the star. Even very far out of
focus, you should be able to see a fat disk (the out-of-focus star),
to determine which way to turn the focus knob to bring the star
down to a focused point.
Software
The next section will document connecting to the camera and
basic image downloads. The included software will run the basic
astro-imaging steps including image download, exposure controls
and such, but please note that this software only touches on the
basic functions of acquiring astro images.To get the best results
with more advanced processes such as stacking multiple long
exposures together to reduce noise, manual dark frame subtrac-
tions, at eld and dark frame stacking for smoother calibration
frames, and other processes, it is HIGHLY recommended to con-
trol the camera with an ASCOM compatible capture program.
Some are free on the web, others are paid, but there is a vast array
of programs available that will be compatible with the camera. Here
are some of our favorites:
DeepSkyStacker: http://deepskystacker.free.fr/ - Excellent free
program for pre-processing that simplies the alignment and
stacking of your images.Automatically monitors a directory where
images are saved, and processes on the y.Add all the calibration
frames, including darks, ats, biases, and step back while the
software does the rest giving you output ready for post processing
in programs such as PhotoShop.
RegiStax: www.astronomie.be/registax/ - Excellent free pro-
gram for aligning, stacking and processing of AVI video les, ideal
for capturing lunar and planetary video, splitting the video into
individual frames, analyzing each frame and aligning/stacking/
processing the best ones for pulling out ne details.
SharpCap: sharpcap.co.uk – Free camera control and capture
program. Features include video and long exposure control, at
eld and dark frame subtractions, histogram control, excellent
focus assist routines including Bahtinov mask overlays and FWHM
measurements, and MUCH more!
Sequence Generator Pro: mainsequencesoftware.com – free
45 day trial. Excellent Image Capture suite to control all aspects
of your setup. Create sequences of exposures of different lengths,
control a Go-To mount for automatic pointing and auto-centering
in any part of the image, auto v-curve focusing with a compatible
electronic focuser (without having to re-center to a target star),
autoguider control, and a host of other features.
Nebulosity: stark-labs.com – free demo available to try. Powerful,
yet very easy to use image capture and processing program.
Excellent processing routines such as aligning/stacking and dark/
at/bias handling. An excellent choice for the beginning astro-
photographer getting into processing, yet will carry over for more
advanced users as well.
N.I.N.A: https://nighttime-imaging.eu/ – free open source image
capture suite designed to control all aspects of your setup. Very
customizable, and with very frequent update cycles which bring
new features to the platform.
PHD2 Guiding: openphdguiding.org – The gold standard open
source (and free!) software for using your StarShoot Mini as an
autoguider. Built in wizards to ne tune the guiding, and now with
the ability to guide on multiple stars in the image.
Note: if you wish to skip using StarShoot Image capture, and only
use your camera as an autoguider, review the following sections
for focus, but skip forward to the Autoguiding section for more
details.
3. Orion StarShoot Image
Capture
Plug the camera into a free USB port in your computer.When you
open Orion Starshoot Image Capture, you’ll be presented with the
main preview window on the right, and the control options on the
left-hand side. (Figure 3a). On the top of the left-hand side, click
the camera name to start a video preview (Figure 3b). Scrolling
down the left-hand side, you’ll nd all the controls for operating
the camera. The primary window to control the exposure and
to use rst is the Capture and Resolution window (Figure 4). In
this window, you can set either video or still image mode (trigger
mode), as well as set the resolution and gain of the camera and
set single, looping, or sequence shots to be saved automatically
in a chosen directory.
Scrolling down further along the left side, you’ll nd windows
for other camera attributes including bit depth (always choose
the highest bit depth to get the most detail and quality out of
the image), binning control (1x1 is full camera resolution) and
histogram. There are other windows present, but the ones listed
above are the most important ones when taking your rst image.
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Some windows are not applicable to astro-imaging, and can be
shut off by going into the Options>preferences menu.
To take your rst image, focus must be achieved. With a CMOS
camera, one of the quickest and easiest ways to focus is to point
the camera at a bright star, and choose a fast video frame rate
with higher gain settings so you can watch the star in real time,
and focus until the star becomes a point.
Focusing
1. Make sure the camera is in preview mode – if not, click the
camera name in the top left window, to turn on streaming
preview mode.
2. In the Capture and Resolution window (Figure 4), set
the resolution to full, the gain to somewhere in the middle
of the slider, and the exposure to video mode with “auto
exposure” unchecked, and an exposure time to somewhere
around 200-500 milliseconds. This should provide you with
several frames per second, enough to see a real time focus
preview.
3. This should be good enough to see a bright star like Vega,
provided it’s in the eld of view, and relatively close to focus.
If you see nothing, but are sure the star is in the center of
the eld, adjust your focus in and out because a very out of
focus star will spread out and become quite dim.
4. Once you acquire the star, center it, and focus until it looks
like a tiny point. At this point you are probably over exposing
the star, and can back off on the exposure time and gain
settings. If the star is in the middle of the eld, you can also
reduce the resolution setting on the chip, in order to speed
up the frame rate, to get a super responsive live focus.
Readjust focus until the star is as tiny as possible.At this
point, everything including the moon and a distant galaxy
will be in focus.
Figure 3a. Primary software screen.
Figure 3b. Camera
model – click this
text to connect to the
camera and start the
preview.
Figure 4.The Capture
and Resolution window
pane.
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5. If you wish to ne tune the focus further, a Bahtinov mask is
an ideal method of focusing with Orion StarShoot Capture,
as it is quite an accurate method using medium brightness
stars. Contact Orion or search for Bahtinov mask on
www.telescope.com for more details, and to purchase a
Bahtinov mask for your specic telescope.
Your First Lunar/Planetary Image
The moon is perhaps the easiest object to get your rst image,
as it is very bright, and easy to nd. Planets are also easier than
nebulae to capture, since you’ll be streaming a video le, and can
use programs such as Registax to process the video le.
1. Go to the Options menu, click preferences, and under the
Record heading, choose a directory location for your saved
les, naming convention of your choice, and make sure the
le type is set to AVI.
2. In the Capture and Resolution window pane, check Video
Mode, uncheck auto exposure, and use the Exposure Time
slider to nd an exposure that looks good. Planets do well
with lots of short exposures, so if the exposure time is too
long, experiment with raising the gain, and lowering the
exposure value.
3. When ready to record, press the record button and press it
again when your video is the desired length. In the Options
menu, under Record preferences, you can set limits to time
of the video, as well as number of frames.
4. You can then load your AVI le into a 3rd party program
such as RegiStax, in order to process the lunar or planetary
details present in the video le.
Auto Exposure can be used if desired, but manually adjusting the
exposure values provides the best control over the image. Check
the “Auto Exposure box, and drag the box over an area you wish
the system to measure.You can resize the box accordingly. Then
set the Exposure Target, and the system will try to keep the expo-
sure close to that target exposure value by adjusting the exposure
time automatically.
Imaging with a Mono camera
One shot color cameras are relatively easy to get a nal image from
because there is less processing involved. But color chip cameras
suffer from less sensitivity to light than a monochrome camera does.
The reason is due to the Bayer Matrix over the chip. The pixels are
arranged in squares of alternating colors (for example -- an RGGB
arrangement in the SS 6.3mp Color).This means that for every four
pixels in a square, only one of them is sensitive to red light, and only
one to blue. But in a monochrome chip, every pixel sees ALL of the
photons of light across the visible spectrum. The result is a much
more sensitive chip.This is much more versatile, because you can
put any kind of lter in front of the camera, depending on the wave-
length of light you want to capture.You may also wish to consider
a lter wheel to simplify the process of switching lters between
exposures.
Conversion Gain
Along the left hand pane is a window for conversion gain, and
options (if your specic camera supports both options) for LCG
and HCG -- low and high options. LCG provides the largest dynam-
ic range in your images at the expense of a bit more noise. HCG
can lower the noise at the expense of compressing the dynamic
range. When in doubt, start in LCG mode, and your images will
turn out ne. But if you are autoguiding, and do not care about
lower dynamic range, switching to HCG and raising the gain a
few points will help pull out some fainter guide stars from the
background noise. The ASCOM driver also includes LCG/HCG
settings when in 3rd party control programs
ASCOM Driver
The ASCOM driver allows the camera to be used with any of
the programs listed above, along with any others that support
ASCOM cameras. Please download the ASCOM platform from
ascom-standards.org rst and then make sure to install the cam-
era ASCOM driver from Orion’s website.When in 3rd party camera
control programs, the camera gain settings can be controlled in
the ASCOM setting window for the camera. Open the ASCOM
camera settings, adjust the gain, and experiment with exposures
as detailed above.One last thing to note, some programs may use
a percentage for gain, others may use the actual gain numbers. If
the gain range is 0-100, it’s using a percentage of total gain.
4. Using the SS Mini as an
Autoguider
The StarShoot Mini cameras have the ability to act as an autogu-
ider to correct for small imperfections in the mount’s tracking qual-
ity. These imperfections can arise from various sources including
periodic error due to the nature of the gearing, and poor polar
alignment which causes a slow drift of the image. Autoguiding
is essential for any long exposure image of the sky, especially at
longer focal lengths.
Mount
An equatorial mount with dual axis motors and an RJ-12 autoguide
port is required. Just about any equatorial mount equipped with an
autoguide port will work with the StarShoot Mini.The Mini is “ST-4”
compatible which uses the same pin out conguration as the rst
generation CCD autoguiders. Most computerized goto mounts
also have this autoguide port. For short exposure deep space
photography (typically 45 seconds or less) the StarShoot Mini
can successfully guide with a computerized altitude-azimuth or
fork mounted telescope (as long as it includes an autoguide port),
popular among computerized Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes.
However, guided exposures longer than one minute in an altitude-
azimuth mount will cause eld rotation to occur in the image, so
an EQ mount is recommended instead.
PHD2 Guiding Software
The SS Mini along with the use of PHD2 Guiding (Push Here
Dummy) software makes the task of autoguiding simple and easy
to setup.The latest version of PHD2 can be found at:
https://openphdguiding.org/
Also, before setting up the StarShoot Mini as an Autoguider, make
sure you have downloaded and installed the ASCOM Platform
(located at ascom-standards.org), followed by the StarShoot
ASCOM driver (available on the Orion support page for your cam-
era). PLEASE make sure to install the ASCOM platform BEFORE
you install the ASCOM camera driver, otherwise Windows will
return an error because it cannot nd the proper ASCOM directo-
ries to install this driver.
5

6
The calibration and guiding is automatic once you initially nd and
focus a guide star.Your telescope must rst be prepared for astro-
imaging. Make sure your mount is polar aligned well.Your guide
scope should be securely attached to your main imaging scope;
or if you are using a Schmidt-Cassegrain, the off-axis guider and
main camera should already be attached to the telescope.
PHD2 Settings
PHD2 has a detailed help le, a setup wizard, and a very active
online forum. But a few initial settings will help get the StarShoot
Mini up and running quickly as a guider. First connect the
StarShoot Mini to your guidescope (see below for some sample
connection types), attaching the USB cable between the camera
and the computer.Then connect the ST-4 phone cable between
the camera and the autoguider port on your mount.You are now
ready to connect to the system in PHD2:
1. Click the ‘Connect Equipment’ button in PHD2 to bring up
the Camera and mount selection dialog box (Figure 6).
For ‘Camera’ choose ‘ASCOM StarShootG Camera Driver’
from the pulldown list, and for Mount, choose ‘On Camera’.
It is important to pick this selection as this is what allows
guiding corrections via the ST-4 cable from the autoguider
to the mount. Optionally, if you also have your mount
connected via USB to the computer via an ASCOM driver,
you can choose the ASCOM mount driver under the ‘Aux
mount’ selection to provide PHD2 with pointing data from
your mount (this can be helpful when moving to different
objects so you do not have to redo the guide calibration
routine.
2. Click the little toolbox button next to the Connect button to
bring up the ASCOM properties for your camera (Figure
7). Make sure in this window you are choosing the correct
camera (if you have two Orion cameras attached, one to
guide and one to image with, both may show up in this list –
make sure you have selected the autoguider). Choose the
highest bit depth, and Gain can also be adjusted, but it is
recommended to keep it between 0-10. Click ‘ok’ to go back
to the Equipment chooser, and then click ‘Connect All’
3. Choose an exposure time (usually 2-4 seconds is
appropriate) and then click ‘Begin Looping Exposures’ to
ne tune the focus and choose a guiding star. You can
also adjust the Screen Gamma slider to show fainter
background stars.
4. Refer to the PHD2 instructions for detailed setup and use of
the program.
Attaching the SS Mini to guidescopes.
The StarShoot Mini features a 1.25" nosepiece to allow it to attach
to most all focusers. In addition, there is a female C-mount cut into
the front housing for direct thread-on connections. The imaging
sensor is approximately 17.5mm behind the front C-mount threads,
and 10.5mm in front of the back lip of the 1.25" section of the body.
To attach the SS Mini to the #52053 Orion 30mm Ultra-Mini Guide
Scope, remove the thin black 5mm CS mount ring spacer from the
30mm guidescope, and thread the SS Mini directly to the C-mount
threads. Pre-focus the 30mm until there is a gap of approximately
2mm in the focus threads, and the camera will be very close to
focus (Figure 8).
To attach the SS Mini to the #13008 60mm Multi Use Guidescope,
rst install the 1.25" nosepiece on the end of the camera’s C-mount
threads. Extend the Guidescope’s drawtube out to its full length
(~35 on the laser engraved drawtube scale) and then insert the
camera with approximately 6mm (0.25") of the camera’s 1.25" body
sticking out of the focuser (Figure 9). It is ok to not bottom out
the camera when inserting into a focuser – the setscrews on the
guidescope will securely hold the camera in place. Fine tune the
focus with the helical section to achieve precise focus, sliding the
camera in and out of the focuser slightly if extra travel is necessary.
Figure 6. The Connect Equipment window.
Figure 5. The USB and autoguide ports of the StarShoot Mini
Autoguider.
Autoguider Port(ST-4}
USB Port

7
Figure 7. The ASCOM camera setup window.
Figure 9. Rough focus position for the 60mm Multi Use
Guidescope.
Camera attached without the
5mm CS spacer ring
Drawtube extended fully
˜6mm (0.25") gap between
ange of camera and focuser
Remove this 5mm CS spacer ring
from the back of the guidescope
Rotate focus to reveal
˜2mm gap
Figure 8. Rough focus position for the 30mm Ultra Mini
Guidescope.
Specifications
StarShoot Mini 6.3mp cameras
Sensor: IMX 178 (Color and Mono)
Resolution: Up to 3040 x 2048
Pixel Size: 2.4 microns
Diagonal Size of chip: 8.86 mm
Bayer Matrix Pattern: RGGB arrangement
Exposure Range: 0.244ms – 1000s
Partial frame download: Region of interest and Sub-frame
download supported
Binning: 1x1, 2x2
ADC: 14 bit
QE peak: 78%
Read Noise: 1.4e – 2.2e (depending on gain set-
ting)
Interface: USB3.0
Front Nosepiece threads: C-mount
CMOS chip window: IR blocking 380-690nm bandpass
(Color version), AR coated, non IR
blocking, 350-1050nm bandpass
(Mono version).
Dimension: 72.4mm x 37mm
Weight: 61g
Camera power: DC 5v from PC USB port
StarShoot Mini 2.0mp Mono Autoguider
Sensor: IMX 290 (Mono)
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Pixel Size: 2.9 microns
Diagonal Size of chip: 6.4 mm
Exposure Range: 0.105ms – 1000s
Partial frame download: Region of interest and Sub-frame
download supported
Binning: Hardware: 1x1
ADC: 12 bit
QE peak: 80%
Interface: USB2.0
Front Nosepiece threads: C-mount
CMOS chip window: AR coated, non IR blocking, 400-
1050nm bandpass
Dimension: 72.4mm x 37mm
Weight: 68g
Camera power: DC 5v from PC USB port
StarShoot Mini 1.2mp Camera
Sensor: IMX 225 (C)
Resolution: 1280 x 960
Pixel Size: 3.75 microns
Diagonal Size of chip: 6 mm
Bayer Matrix pattern RGGB arrangement
Exposure Range: 0.135ms – 1000s
Partial frame download: Region of interest and Sub-frame
download supported
Binning: 1x1, 2x2
ADC: 12 bit
QE peak: TBD
Interface: USB2.0
Front Nosepiece threads: C-mount
CMOS chip window: AR coated, non IR blocking,
400-1000nm bandpass
Dimension: 67mm x 37mm
Weight: 66g
Camera power: DC 5v from USB port

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Copyright © 2021 Orion Telescopes & Binoculars.All Rights Reserved. No part of this product instruction or any of its contents
may be reproduced, copied, modied or adapted, without the prior written consent of Orion Telescopes & Binoculars.
AN EMPLOYEE-OWNED COMPANY
One-Year Limited Warranty
This Orion product is warranted against defects in materials or workmanship for a period of one year from
the date of purchase. This warranty is for the benet of the original retail purchaser only. During this war-
ranty period Orion Telescopes & Binoculars will repair or replace, at Orion’s option, any warranted instru-
ment that proves to be defective, provided it is returned postage paid. Proof of purchase (such as a copy
of the original receipt) is required. This warranty is only valid in the country of purchase.
This warranty does not apply if, in Orion’s judgment, the instrument has been abused, mishandled, or
modied, nor does it apply to normal wear and tear. This warranty gives you specic legal rights. It is not
intended to remove or restrict your other legal rights under applicable local consumer law; your state or
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For further warranty information, please visit www.OrionTelescopes.com/warranty.