SBIG STF-8300M User manual

Model STF-8300M/C
CCD Camera
Operating Manual
SBIG Astronomical Instruments, A Division of Diffraction Limited. | 59 Grenfell Crescent, Unit B, Ottawa, ON Canada, k2G 0G3
Tel: [phone] | Fax: [phone]| E-mail: [email protected] | www.sbig.com
© 2015 Diffraction Limited. All rights reserved. The SBIG wordmark and logo are trademarks of Diffraction Limited, All other trademarks, service marks and
tradenames appearing in this brochure are the property of their respective owners.
SBIG Astronomical Instruments, A Division of Diffraction Limited.
59 Grenfell Crescent, Unit B, Ottawa, ON Canada, k2G 0G3
Tel: [phone] | Fax: [phone]| E-mail: [email protected] | www.sbig.com
© 2015 Diffraction Limited. All rights reserved. The SBIG wordmark and logo are trademarks of
Diffraction Limited, All other trademarks, service marks and tradenames appearing in this brochure are
the property of their respective owners.

Page i
DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY
We, Santa Barbara Instrument Group, a division of Aplegen, Inc., 147-A
Castilian Drive, Goleta, CA 93117 USA, [phone], declare under our
sole responsibility that the Model STF-8300 CCD camera complies with
Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two
conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this
device must accept any interference received, including interference that
may cause undesired operation.
____________________________________________________________
Note: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits
for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These
limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses,
and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in
accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio
communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not
occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful
interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by
turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
• Increase the separation between the receiver and the
equipment.
• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different
from that to which the receiver is connected.
• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for
help.
A ferrite clip on the USB cable, power cable, and tracker cable must be used
when operating this equipment.
You are also warned that any changes to this certified device will void your
legal right to operate it.
Operating Manual for STF-8300 Series Cameras
Revision 1.2
December 8, 2011

Page ii
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .....................................................................................................1
Getting Started.............................................................................................. 1
Overview and Connections........................................................................... 2
2. Installing the Software on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Systems......................4
Migrating Old Drivers from 32-bit to newer 64-bit Systems........................7
3. Using the Camera Inside...............................................................................10
Running CCDOps....................................................................................... 10
Getting Help............................................................................................... 10
Brightness and Contrast.............................................................................. 13
Establishing a Link..................................................................................... 14
Camera Info................................................................................................ 15
Camera Setup ............................................................................................. 16
Grab Command .......................................................................................... 17
Focus Command......................................................................................... 18
4. At the Telescope.............................................................................................21
Finding and Centering the Object............................................................... 22
Taking an Image......................................................................................... 23
Further Adventures..................................................................................... 23
5. Acessories for your CCD Camera ................................................................ 24
Color Filter Wheels.................................................................................... 24
OAG-8300.................................................................................................. 24
ST-i Autoguider and Planetary Camera...................................................... 24
Camera Lens Adapters................................................................................ 24
12V Battery Cable...................................................................................... 24
Extension Power Cable............................................................................... 25
Relay Adapter Box..................................................................................... 25
6. Glossary.......................................................................................................... 27
Appendix A – Connector and Cables...................................................................31
Power Jack.................................................................................................. 31
Telescope Jack............................................................................................ 31
Appendix B – Maintenance................................................................................... 32
Cleaning the Window and Filters............................................................... 32
Regenerating the Desiccant Plug................................................................ 32
Appendix C – Camera Specifications................................................................... 34
Appendix D – STF-8300CM Color Camera Supplement................................... 35

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
1
Never plug or unplug the power connector to the camera with the power on.
The power connector on the STF-8300 is not made to be "hot plugged", or
connected when the AC adapter is connected to the AC line or when there
are 12V present at the camera connector. Make sure the AC line cord (or
battery) is disconnected prior to attaching or detaching the locking power
plug to the camera. "Hot" plugging the locking connector into the camera
could damage your camera and require it to be sent to SBIG for repair.
Very Important: Before you attach the STF-8300 to your computer for
the first time you MUST install the software as described in Section 2.
1. Introduction
Congratulations and thank you for buying one of our STF-8300 cooled
CCD cameras. The STF-8300 has the following features:
•Uses Kodak’s microlensed, blue enhanced KAF-8300 CCD with
3326 x 2504 pixels, 5.4 micron square pixels.
•16-bit A/D converter with correlated double sampling running at
10 megahertz.
•Temperature regulated Thermo-Electric (TE) cooling with 40
degrees C max. delta for reduction in CCD dark current.
•Single board, small, compact design with internal shutter allowing
exposures down to 0.1 seconds that makes taking dark frames a
trivial task.
•USB 2 interface yielding up to 10 megapixels per second
digitization rates but full backward compatibility with USB 1.1.
•Input power requirements of 9.0 – 14.0 Volts DC at 3 Amps
through the new locking style center-positive power jack.
•Telescope interface with four optically isolated normally open
signals on the industry standard RJ-11 jack.
•T-Thread based mechanical interface that supports a variety of
nosepieces and adapters.
•Optional external filter wheels with choice of filters.
•Optional ST-i Autoguider and Integrated Off-Axis Guiding
Assembly for Self-Guiding
•Powerful yet intuitive CCDOps software for image acquisition and
processing.
Getting Started
WARNING! - Failure to follow these directions may damage your
camera and void your warranty.

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
2
Over tions
In addition to this truly fine Operating Manual, the STF-8300 package
includes the following items:
STF-8300 Camera – The camera body is approximately 4 x 5 x 2 inches.
2 Inch T-Thread Nosepiece – This screws into the front of the camera for
telescope work and includes a soft rubber dust cap. Optional
Visual Back adapters are available from SBIG. In addition a
screw-in T-to-C adapter and 35mm camera lens adapters are
available.
Power Supply – The camera come with a Universal 100-240VAC to 12V/3
Amp DC power supply.
USB Cable – Included is a 15-foot, USB 2 certified, A-to-B type, USB
cable. USB has a limit of 15-feet but the range can be extended
with active boosters. Relatively low-cost (~$30) 15-foot boosters
that can be strung together are available from such sources such as
<www.usbgear.com>. Long haul boosters (more expensive) are
available from <www.icron.com>. Also note that putting a hub at
15 feet will allow you to go another 15 feet.
Tracking Cable – This cable looks like a simple “RJ-11 telephone cable”
but in fact is a “6-pin reversed RJ-11 telephone cable”. Telescopes
require 6-pin autoguider cables and reversed means that unlike
ordinary phone cables, this one flips the order of the wires. You
can tell a tracking cable from an ordinary cable by noting that with
tracking cables the tines that lock the RJ-11 jack into the receptacle
are both on the same flat side of the cable or when the ends are put
side by side the colored wires inside are in opposite order on the
two connectors.
Rack Handles and Attachment Screws – Rack handles are provided to
give a more steady grip when wearing gloves or for attaching a
safety strap to prevent damage to the camera if it should fall from
the scope. Not everyone wants or needs these handles, however,
so installation is left to the owner's discretion. To install the
handles, remove the back cover and pass the 4 socket-head screws
through the cover into the base of the handles and tighten with the
9/16 in hex wrench provided.
Software – We include several CD-ROMs with the STF-8300 but the most
important one is labeled “SBIG Software and Catalog”. This
disc contains the drivers and CCDOps software you’ll need to use
the camera.
view and Connec

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
GUIDE PORT: This is where you connect the supplied 6 conductor
modular phone style cable to the Autoguider (sometimes labeled "CCD")
nput port on your mount when using the STF-8300 as an autoguide or
OPS
rate from 100 - 240VAC and provides 3.3A
t
er
les
32
i r,
when using Track & Accumulate with mount corrections (see the CCD
Manual for details of this mode
POWER: Plug in the power supply here, or attach any 12VDC power
source (9 - 14V) that provides 3 amps minimum. The power supply that
omes with the camera will opec
at 12VDC. (Note that while an ST-402 power supply will fit, it does no
provide the current required by the STF-8300 to operate properly)
USB: Attach the 15 foot USB cable to any USB port on your computer
AFTER you have installed the drivers and software for the STF-8300.
I2C: This special port is for connection of an SBIG filter wheel. The filt
wheel will get its power and commands through this port. No other cab
re needed for the filter wheel to function. (Note: This is NOT an RS-2a
port. Connecting serial devices or your PC to this port may damage them or
the camera.)
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
2. Installing the Software on 32-bit or 64-bit Windows Systems
This section tells you how to do a fresh install of SBIG Cameras on your
32-bit or 64-bit Versions of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. The Driver
Checker program will automatically install 32-bit or 64-bit drivers based on
your version of Windows.
1. Make sure no SBIG cameras are attached to your system.
2. Make sure your account has Administrator privileges then run the
SetupBitDriverChecker64.exe program to install the 64 Bit compatible
SBIG Driver Checker application on your system (On Vista and Win 7
do not select "run" until after Driver Checker is installed).
3. On Vista and Win 7 based systems, find the icon for the SBIG Driver
Checker by opening the Start menu and typing SBIGDriver in the
search box. The icon should appear above the search box. Right click
the icon and select Properties then click the Compatibility tab. Click
the “Run this program as an administrator” as shown below and then
hit the OK button.
Note: Under Vista and Win 7 there are 2 levels of administrator
privileges: one at the account level and one at the program level. To
properly install the drivers the Driver Checker application requires
both.
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
4. Run the Driver Checker application and it will ask you about any ST
Series Cameras (ST-7/8/9/10/2K) you may plan on using. Prior to
2006 the ST Series cameras had only an internal Tracking CCD. We
call this the Classic Model. In 2006 we added the Remote Guide Head
capability to the ST Series and we call it the Pro Model. The Driver
Checker needs to know whether your ST Series camera is a Classic
Model or a Pro model. For the STF-8300 and other models this section
does not matter. Select "Pro" and "Remember" to avoid seeing this
dialog box again.
5. After answering the Classic/Pro question above you'll see the following
dialog. The list of drivers shown may be different on your system but
it will generally indicate that no Installed Drivers were found and that
they all need to be updated.
6. Click the Update button and the Driver Checker will start to install the
SBIG drivers into your system.
7. Once the drivers have finished installing, the Driver Checker will show
the following. At this point you can quit the Driver Checker.
5

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
8. Now it's time to try out the new drivers. With your camera
disconnected from the PC, power it up and then plug it into the PC with
the USB Cable. In the lower-right hand corner of the screen you see
something like:
Followed by:
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
9. If for some reason the Add New Hardware Wizard asks you to
manually locate the drivers then navigate to the proper directory under
the Driver Checker directory in the Program Files or Program Files
(X86) directory. There are 4 possibilities and you must choose the
correct set of drivers. There are directories for 32 Bit and 64 Bit
drivers, based upon you version of Windows and under them
directories for Classic and Pro model cameras. For non-ST (round
body) cameras, pick either classic or Pro, it does not matter which).
10. At this point the fan in the camera should come on and the camera
should show up in the Device Manager as shown below:
11. Run CCDOps and verify that you can establish a link to the camera.
Note: If you previously installed SBIG 32-bit drivers using the old 32-
bit Driver Checker program and now want to install 64-bit drivers
over the old installation, follow the procedure outlined below:
Migrating Old Drivers from 32-bit to newer 64-bit Systems
This section describes how to migrate drivers from the old 32-bit only
DriverChecker to the new 32/64-Bit Compatible DriverChecker64.
1. Uninstall the old DriverChecker software.
a. Run the Add or Remove Programs Control Panel in the
Start menu.
b. Click on the SBIG Driver Checker entry and then click
on the Change/Remove button.
2. Manually delete the old drivers files from the disk.
a. Delete the following files from the
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers directory:
sbigfldr.sys, sbiguldr.sys, sbiglldr.sys, sbigusbe.sys,
sbigusbi.sys
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
Some of these may not exist on your system but delete the
ones that do.
3. Manually delete the old drivers files from the Device Manager.
a. In the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to
Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.
b. At the command prompt, type the following command ,
and then press ENTER:
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
c. Type the following command a command prompt, and
then press ENTER:
start devmgmt.msc
d. In the View menu select the Show hidden devices
command.
e. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section by
click on the adjacent “+”
f. For each of the items listed below, right click on the item
then select Uninstall:
”SBIG USB Camera", ”SBIG ST-402 Camera", “SBIG
USB Loader", “SBIG ST-L Loader", “SBIG ST-402
Loader"
g. Quit the Device Manager.
4. Install the new DriverChecker64 software.
a. Use the installer that came with your camera or download
it from our web site:
<www.sbig com>
5. Run the DriverChecker64 software.
a. From the Start menu select the DriverChecker64 item in
the SBIG folder.
b. Answer the question about your ST cameras.
6. Click the Update button to copy the new drivers to your system.
Link your old cameras to the new drivers.
a. For each type of SBIG Camera you own (ST, STL, ST-
402), power up the camera one at a time and then attach it
to the PC with the USB cable.
b. When the Add New Hardware Wizard comes up select
“No, not this time” when it asks if it can connect to
Windows Update then click Next.
c. Select “Install the software automatically” and click
Next.
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
d. If Windows asks you for the best match select any of the
entries with Version 2.41.0.0 then click Next.
e. Click Finish and then you’ll have to go through steps b
through done more time for this camera.
f. Repeats steps athrough ffor each SBIG camera.
When you’re all done your camera should show up in the Device Manager
in the SBIG USB Devices section as shown below:
Updating CCDOps and Drivers
We are constantly adding new features and fixing software bugs in our
software, which is available for free download from our web site. You
should periodically visit our website to check for updated versions of the
CCDOps software and you should also periodically run the Driver Checker
to download and update your drivers. To find the latest software and
drivers, go to:
http://www.sbig.com -> Support -> Software
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
3. Using the Camera Inside
When you first receive the STF-8300 it’s wise to get acquainted with its
operation inside the house where it’s warm and not to try to fight the
telescope operation in the dark. We’ve included a brief tutorial below to get
you acquainted with the STF-8300 and the CCDOps software.
Running CCDOps
Once installed, it’s easy to run CCDOps from the Windows Start menu.
Click the Start Menu, then find the SBIG Folder, which under Windows
XP is under the All Programs section. Finally click the CCDOps Icon to
start the program. You’ll be presented with the startup About Dialog that
shows the SBIG logo and the version of CCDOps. To dispense with it click
anywhere in the dialog other than the two blue fields or simply wait and the
dialog will close itself.
Getting Help
CCDOps includes an extensive help file that can be accessed through the
Help Topics item in the Help menu. In addition many of the
dialogs have an embedded Help button that will take you to the
Help Topic for that specific command. Just remember, help is
always just a click away.
Opening and Inspecting Dark Frames
We’ve included some sample images on the SBIG Software and Catalog
CD-ROM to get you acquainted with what you should expect from your
camera.
First, let’s look at what is called a dark frame. In the File menu use
the Open command and then navigate to the CD-ROM’s Images directory.
Double-click on the STF-8300 Tutorial folder to show its contents. Finally
double-click on the Image 1 – Sample Dark Frame icon to open the image.
CCDOps will present you with a dialog listing all the parameters
associated with the image such as the Exposure Time, the Date and Time
the image was acquired, etc. Note that the Exposure Time was 1.0 second.
Spend some time inspecting the data then click in the dialog to close it.
Data like this is always attached to saved images and you can show it
using the Parameters command in the Display menu. After the Image
Parameters dialog has gone you’ll see the image displayed in its own
window and the Contrast dialog will appear. The image is shown below:
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
This is what’s referred to as a dark frame and it’s what you get when you
take a picture with the nosepiece covered and the shutter closed. It’s a
picture in the dark. Although there’s not much interesting to look at in this
image there are some very important features that you need to understand.
The first thing you’ll see is that while the image looks mostly like salt
and pepper there are hundreds of bright specks. These are called hot pixels.
They are present in every CCD image to one extent or another, even in
images from our most expensive cameras. If your digital snappy camera
didn’t automatically remove them for you, they would be seen in those
images too.
What causes hot pixels? It’s an attribute of CCD sensors called dark
current. A pixel in an ideal CCD, in the absence of light, would maintain a
steady value. When exposed to light the pixel’s value would increase in
response to the light but then as soon as the light went away the pixel would
maintain its value again.
In the real world CCD pixels suffer from the affects of dark current
whereby the pixel’s value slowly increases (brightens) over time. All the
pixels in the image shown above have some component of their signal due
to the build up of dark current.
Dark current builds up over time in a linear fashion but cooling the
CCD can reduced the rate at which it accumulates. For example, cooling
the CCD by 25°C reduces the dark current 16-fold. That’s why
Astronomical CCD cameras are cooled – to reduce the dark current when
imaging very faint objects.
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
12
Hot pixels are simply the pixels where the dark current is higher than
the average and thus they show up as white specs against the salt and
pepper background. Again, this is completely normal for CCD images.
The second effect you’ll notice is a brightening on the left of the image,
as if something bright was just outside the field of view. This is called the
readout glow and is caused by the electronics in the CCD, in particular by a
very small but ever present glow emanating from in the on-chip amplifier
that conditions the weak signals in the CCD so that they may be digitized.
The readout (or digitization) of images from CCDs is a sequential
process whereby every pixel is digitized one-after-another until the whole
image has been digitized. The readout starts at pixel (1,1) in the top-left
corner and proceeds to pixel (3326, 2504) in the lower-right hand corner.
As each pixel in a row is readout the pixels to the right of it within the same
row are shifted to the left one position in preparation for the next pixel
readout. The next pixel is then readout and the process repeated until every
pixel in the first row has been digitized.
At this point the whole CCD is shifted up one row and digitization
starts with the left-most pixel of the second row. The readout glow on the
left of the images is a buildup of light from a glow from the preamplifier
structures in the upper-left hand corner of the CCD while rows are queuing
up for readout.
The final effect you’ll notice is the salt-and-pepper look of the
background. What you’re seeing here is the ultimate noise floor of the
CCD whereby adjacent pixels have slightly different values due to noise in
the CCD and readout electronics. The noise in dark frames that have a zero
exposure time is referred to as the read noise of the camera.
Fortunately for us there are very simple image processing techniques
we can use to eliminate the effects of dark current and readout glow.
Let’s open another image. Close the first image by clicking the X in
the upper-right corner then use the Open command in the File menu again
but, this time double-click on Image 2. Note in the Image Parameters
dialog that this image had an Exposure Time of 10 seconds. Click in the
dialog to close it.
Now this image has a whole lot more hot pixels! That’s because this
exposure was 10 times as long and the pixels built up 10 times the dark
current. It’s hard to even see the background through all the hot pixels.
About this time you’re probably asking yourself “How can I ever take
deep sky images with all these hot pixels?” The answer is simple. Because
the build up of dark current at a given CCD temperature is a repeatable
effect you can remove the effects of dark current by taking two images, one
with the shutter open (light frame) and another of equal exposure with the
shutter closed (dark frame). You then subtract the dark frame from the
light frame, and because the hot pixels and the readout glow repeat from
one image to another they are removed by the subtraction.
Let’s see how this works. Close Image 2 and Open Image 3, which is
a 10-second light frame where you can get a hint of the object but the hot

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
pixels are definitely obscuring it. Now use the Dark Subtract command in
the Utility menu. This brings up the Open File dialog where CCDOps
wants you to select which image to subtract. Double-click on Image 2, the
10-second dark frame. The displayed image turns completely black! What
did we do? Did we destroy the image by dark subtracting? No we didn’t
but it’s time to learn something else regarding CCD images.
Brightness and Contrast
Images from the STF-8300 are 16-bit images meaning any pixel can have
values from 0 to 65,535 ADU where ADU is short for A/D Converter Units.
Said another way this means there are 65,536 possible brightness or gray
scale values that each pixel can have. In CCD lingo this is referred to as the
dynamic range. But computer monitors and our eyes can typically only
distinguish a hundred or so different gray scale values. How do we
accommodate the large dynamic range of CCD images with our computer?
The answer is through Brightness and Contrast adjustments of the
displayed image.
Getting back to our dark subtracted image and why it’s completely
black. Find the Contrast dialog shown
to the right and then click the Auto
checkbox. Magically our object
appears, and as promised, the hot pixels
and the readout glow are gone, replaced
by the object and the salt-and-pepper
noise. What did we do?
By clicking the Auto checkbox we
told CCDOps to adjust the image
display to match the actual image’s
pixel values. Auto Contrast is a very
handy tool to have in your bag of tricks.
Just for fun click the Smooth checkbox in the Contrast dialog. The
noise in the image is greatly reduced. The Smooth option is handy when
for reducing the noise in underexposed images like Image 3.
Let’s explore the Contrast dialog further. Close the dark subtracted
Image 3 and when CCDOps asks you if you want to save the changes
you’ve made click No. Use the Open command again to open Image 4,
which is just like Image 3, but with a proper exposure.
13
Click the small up and down buttons adjacent to the Back setting
several times and you’ll see the overall image brightness increase
The first thing to notice is that in the Contrast dialog the Back is set to
8,000 and the Range is set to 20,000. What does that mean? In short it
means that pixel values from 8,000 (Back) to 8,000+20,000 (Back +
Range) have been displayed using the monitor’s available gray scale.
Pixels with values 8,000 ADU or below are completely black. Pixels with
values 8,000+20,000=28,000 ADU or above are completely white. Finally,
pixels with values between 8,000 and 28,000 are shades of gray.

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
14
and decrease. Click the ones adjacent to the Range setting and you’ll see
the image contrast increase and decrease. Here’s a summary of how this
works:
Increasing the Back decreases the image brightness and vice-versa.
Increasing the Range decreases the image contrast and vice-versa.
Set the Back to 8,000 and the Range to 20,000 by typing in the fields
(without the comma) and then hit the Apply button to get us back to where
we started. When you manually enter values in the Back and Range you
must hit Apply to see the effect.
Let’s learn a little more about the controls in the Contrast dialog. Click
the Invert checkbox and notice that the image now looks like a negative.
For images of faint objects, viewing the image as a negative by clicking
Invert can reveal faint structure.
Unclick Invert and then click Sharpen on and off several times while
looking at the fine detail in the image. With the Sharpen checked it’s
almost as if the focus improves. That’s the effect of Sharpen. It works
great on well-exposed images but tends to increase the noise in faint areas.
The last thing to try in the Contrast dialog is the Mag popup. It’s set to
1:1 but selecting 2:1 or 4:1 zooms in on the image, enlarging the image
display. Selecting 1:2 or 1:4 zooms out on the image. Try the 1:2 and 2:1
settings. You may wonder if all these changes to the Contrast dialog are
destructive to the image data. They are not.
Changes to the settings in the Contrast dialog only affect the way the image
is displayed. They do not modify the actual pixel values.
In Summary
•Clicking Auto is a good place to start with most images.
•Back controls image brightness and Range controls contrast.
•Clicking Invert can help reveal faint detail in images.
•Clicking Smooth can reduce the noise in underexposed images.
•Clicking Sharpen reveals additional detail in well-exposed images.
Establishing a Link
It’s time to actually connect up to your camera and take some images. If
you haven’t installed the drivers already go back to Section 2 and do so
now.
If you’ve taken a break from the tutorial and the camera isn’t powered
up and attached to the computer do so now by plugging in the power source
and then connecting the camera to the computer. At this point the Fan and
LED on the back of the camera should be on.

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
Use the Graphics/Comm Setup command in the Misc menu to make
sure USB is selected for the Interface. Click OK to set/confirm that and
then use the Establish COM Link command in the Camera menu.
CCDOps will try to connect to your camera, which can take several
seconds to complete. If successful you’ll hear the shutter emit a series of
clicking sounds as it finds home and you’ll see updated information in the
Link Status fields show in the lower-right corner of the CCDOps window
as shown here:
This shows the link has been established to your camera. It says ST-402 in
the status bar because the ST-402 uses the same drivers as the STF-8300.
However, if you click on Camera Info (below) the STF-8300 will be
correctly identified. This box also indicates that the Temperature of the
CCD is 18.48°C and that the TE cooling is disabled (0%). The clicking is
not a death rattle – it is simply the shutter homing against a stop.
Camera Info
After establishing a link to the STF-8300 use the Information command in
the Camera menu and you’ll see a dialog box similar to the one below:
The Camera Information command shows you the capabilities of your
camera. There are a few key items here that you should be aware of should
you ever need technical support:
Firmware Version/Driver Info – Over time we revise the camera firmware
and drivers to add new capabilities and fix software bugs. The
STF has its firmware in the flash memory. The DriverChecker64
contains the ability to update the firmware in the camera flash
15

SBIG STF-8300 Manual
memory. To make sure you have the latest firmware periodically
run the Driver Checker, which checks our servers for later drivers
and updates your system accordingly.
Serial Number – If you ever need to know this, here it is. It’s on the label
on the back of the camera as well.
Readout Mode Table – This shows the various readout modes the STF-
8300 supports. The High-resolution mode offers the full 3326 x
2504 resolution with 5.4 micron square pixels. The STF-8300 also
supports binning whereby groups of pixels are combined to form a
single larger pixel. This reduces the resolution but increases the
sensitivity as larger pixels capture more light. The Medium and
Low-resolution modes utilize 2x2 and 3x3 binning as you can see
by the Image Height/Width and Pixel Size entries.
Finally, review the information presented, then close the dialog by clicking
in it.
Camera Setup
Use the Setup command in the Camera menu to see the STF-8300 Camera
Setup dialog shown below.
The key items in this dialog are described individually below.
Temperature Regulation – This allows you to turn the TE cooling on and
off. Typically at the start of an imaging session you’ll turn the
cooling on and then back off at the end of the night. For now let’s
just leave it off.
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SBIG STF-8300 Manual
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Setpoint – When the Temperature Regulation is on, set this to the absolute
temperature in degrees C to which the CCD should be cooled.
We know that cooling reduces dark current but there is a limit as to
how much the CCD can be cooled by the TE cooler.
We recommend choosing a temperature that is 30 to 35 degrees
below the ambient temperature. Choosing a lower temperature
won’t hurt the camera but you’ll notice in the Link Status field
(bottom of screen) that the CCD never attains the temperature and
the TE stays at 100%. It can take several minutes for the
temperature to settle in, but if you see the TE stuck at 100% simply
increase the Setpoint Temperature so it can regulate.
Resolution mode – This popup controls the readout mode discussed in the
Camera Information section above. You can select the High,
Medium or Low resolutions modes directly but we recommend
you start with the Auto resolution mode. In Auto mode the camera
uses the high-resolution mode everywhere except in the Full
Frame Focus mode (discussed below) where it uses the low-
resolution mode to speed up the image throughput.
Reuse dark frames – This is a handy feature and you should set it to Yes.
What that means is that when you’re taking images where you
want to subtract dark frames the software will reuse a previously
captured dark frame if it’s the same exposure time and at the same
CCD temperature.
Fast STF-8300 Readout - Checking this box enables the STF-8300 to
readout and download simultaneously. This minimizes the time
between frames when taking a long sequence of short exposures
(by approximately one-half second per frame) or when focusing,
for example. However, on some computers it may produce
artifacts in the image. If you find this is the case, uncheck this box
for normal, sequential operation.
You can read about the other items in the Help but for now just leave them
set the way they are. Click OK to register your changes.
Grab Command
Let’s take a dark frame with your new camera. If you haven’t done so
already, screw in the nosepiece and put the rubber cap on it. While the
shutter was designed to block light from the telescope for dark frames, it
can’t block flooding room light from leaking around the edges of the shutter
blade. That’s why you should cover it under bright light illumination.
Now, use the Grab command in the Camera menu and set the dialog as
shown below: