Player One Astronomy Sedna-M USB3.0 Mono Camera (IMX178)

Player One Astronomy Sedna-M USB3.0 Mono Camera (IMX178)

The Player One Astronomy Sedna-M USB3.0 monochrome autoguiding camera with a 1/1.8" format Sony IMX178 sensor, part of the Player One astronomical autoguiding camera series, is designed for guiding and imaging.

The pixel size is 2.4 µm, with a full well capacity of 15 ke- and a total of 6.4 MPx; the resolution is 3096x2078 px and the diagonal measures 9 mm.

All Player One Astronomy guiding cameras feature a USB 3.0 port with a bandwidth of up to 500 Mbps, nearly 10 times higher than a USB 2.0 connection, which tops out at around 60 Mbps. As a result, they can also be used effectively for high-speed lucky imaging of the Moon and planets.

These cameras feature the classic 1.25" barrel format, allowing them to fit into standard eyepieces or nosepieces of the same diameter, such as those commonly found on popular compact guide scopes.

Features

Avant-garde Design

The guiding cameras developed by Player One Astronomy use a high-tech regular hexagon shape to define the main body's outline.

DPS Technology

Player One Astronomy guiding cameras feature a technology called DPS (Dead Pixel Suppression). DPS technology analyzes multiple dark frames to identify hot/dead pixels and stores their map in the camera's memory. During imaging, with each exposure frame, the location of the dead pixels is assigned a median value based on the surrounding active pixels.

Overvoltage and Overcurrent Protection Mechanism

Player One Astronomy integrates an overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanism to safeguard the integrity of its equipment and any connected devices.

Data Port

When the camera is connected via the USB 3.0 interface and using full-resolution preview, it can reach 60 FPS in RAW8 mode (10-bit ADC). During image acquisition, since the actual write speed is affected by the write speed of the hard drive itself, a slow drive may prevent the recording from reaching its theoretical maximum speed. It is recommended to use a high-quality solid-state drive (SSD) for data acquisition in order to fully exploit the camera's performance.

Use the ST4 guide cable to connect the camera to the AUTO GUIDE port on the equatorial mount for autoguiding.

Performances

Read Noise

Regarding read noise, the manufacturer conducts actual field tests. For users, it is possible to test using SharpCap 4. SharpCap 4 features a Sensor Analysis tool, which provides a very straightforward way to measure read noise.

After extensive and rigorous read noise testing, the Player One Astronomy Sedna-M camera achieves a low read noise of 1.34 e- at a gain setting of 350.

Quantum efficiency

HCG Mode

The Sedna-M camera features an exclusive HCG mode, which turns on automatically when the camera gain setting is above 30.
HCG mode can greatly reduce read noise while maintaining the same high dynamic range as low gain mode.

Mechanical diagrams

In the box