Saturn-C SQR Planetary Camera – Designed for Lunar, Solar, and DSO Imaging
Introducing the Saturn-C SQR Planetary Camera, the most powerful planetary imaging tool in the history of Player One Astronomy. Built with the advanced IMX533 BSI sensor, this camera delivers unparalleled performance with high image quality, high resolution, and a unique square sensor format. Designed specifically for lunar imaging, solar mosaic photography, and DSO lucky imaging, the Saturn-C SQR is the perfect choice for astrophotographers looking for precision, clarity, and efficiency in their captures.
Key Features of the Saturn-C SQR
- IMX533 BSI Sensor: High sensitivity and exceptional image quality, capturing fine details of planetary surfaces, lunar craters, solar features, and deep-sky objects.
- Non-Amp-Glow Technology: The Saturn-C SQR features non-amp-glow technology, ensuring clean images even during long exposure imaging sessions. No more unwanted glow in your deep-sky object (DSO) captures.
- Square Sensor Format: The 1:1 square format allows for better field coverage and makes it ideal for stitching mosaic images of the Sun or the Moon without excessive overlap, improving efficiency and reducing processing time.
- High-Resolution Imaging: With a high resolution and enhanced sensitivity, the Saturn-C SQR captures breathtaking details of planets, the lunar surface, and more.
- Versatile for DSO Imaging: While built for planetary imaging, the Saturn-C SQR is highly effective for deep-sky object (DSO) imaging, providing excellent clarity and dynamic range for distant celestial objects.
Perfect for Lunar, Solar Mosaic, and DSO Lucky Imaging
The Saturn-C SQR is designed to handle a variety of astrophotography applications, making it ideal for lunar and solar mosaic imaging as well as lucky imaging of DSOs. Thanks to its non-amp-glow feature, this camera captures clean, high-quality images without the noise caused by long exposure times. Its square sensor format maximizes the field of view, simplifying the image capture process and making post-processing more efficient.
IMX533 BSI Sensor – Superior Image Quality
The IMX533 Backside Illuminated (BSI) sensor is the core of the Saturn-C SQR, providing exceptional sensitivity and low noise for planetary, lunar, solar, and DSO imaging. This advanced sensor technology enables crisp, high-resolution images of celestial bodies, capturing fine details such as the rugged surface of the Moon, solar prominences, and distant galaxies and nebulae with outstanding clarity.
Advanced Non-Amp-Glow Technology
The non-amp-glow technology in the Saturn-C SQR is a game-changer for long exposure astrophotography. Amp-glow is a common problem in long exposures, but with this feature, your images remain free of the unwanted glow. This ensures you can capture stunning deep-sky images with minimal post-processing, making the Saturn-C SQR a top choice for DSO imaging as well as planetary imaging.
Square Format for Efficient Mosaic Imaging
With the square format of the Saturn-C SQR, creating high-resolution mosaic images of the Sun and Moon is more efficient than ever. The 1:1 aspect ratio minimizes the need for excessive image overlap, allowing you to capture more of the target in a single shot. This not only improves the efficiency of your imaging session but also simplifies the post-processing workflow, making it easier to stitch together large mosaic images with minimal effort.
Optimized for DSO Imaging
The Saturn-C SQR’s high sensitivity and non-amp-glow technology make it an excellent choice for deep-sky object (DSO) imaging. With its low read noise and high dynamic range, the Saturn-C SQR captures faint details of distant celestial objects like nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters. This makes it a versatile tool for astrophotographers who want to explore both planetary and deep-sky imaging without compromising on quality.
Technical Specifications
- Sensor: Sony IMX533 BSI CMOS
- Resolution: 1:1 square format for high-resolution imaging
- Pixel Size: High sensitivity with fine pixel size for detailed planetary and lunar imaging
- Non-Amp-Glow: Eliminates amp-glow in long exposures
- Frame Rate: High-speed imaging capabilities for planetary, lunar, and solar captures
- Aspect Ratio: Square 1:1 format for optimized mosaic image capturing
Why Choose the Saturn-C SQR for Your Astrophotography Setup?
With the Saturn-C SQR, you get a camera that’s designed to provide you with the best possible results for planetary, lunar, solar, and DSO imaging. The advanced IMX533 sensor, non-amp-glow feature, and square format make it a top choice for both beginners and seasoned astrophotographers. Whether you’re capturing the intricate details of the Moon’s surface, tracking the solar disk, or photographing distant nebulae and galaxies, the Saturn-C SQR delivers stunning results every time.
Ideal Applications for the Saturn-C SQR
- Lunar Imaging: Capture detailed images of the Moon’s surface with high-resolution clarity.
- Solar Mosaic Photography: Perfect for stitching large, high-resolution solar mosaic images.
- DSO Imaging: Capture stunning deep-sky objects like galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters.
Unlock the Power of the Saturn-C SQR Planetary Camera
If you're looking for a camera that delivers superior performance for lunar, solar, and deep-sky object imaging, the Saturn-C SQR Planetary Camera is the ultimate choice. Its advanced features, versatile sensor, and exceptional image quality make it an essential addition to any astrophotographer’s setup.
Order your Saturn-C SQR Planetary Camera today and experience the future of astrophotography!
Product Description
Saturn-C SQR (IMX533) camera is developed by Player One Astronomy, SQR means its sensor is square. Saturn-C SQR camera, which adopts Sony IMX533 1” square format color sensor. The 3.76um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 73Ke with a total of 9MP (the resolution is 3008*3008), and the diagonal is 16mm.
STARVIS Technology
Saturn-C SQR (IMX533) camera based on Sony STARVIS technology, it is back-illuminated pixel technology used in CMOS image sensors.
Format
Saturn-C SQR camera has 1″ format, this size is quite big for imaging.
Extend Full well Capacity
Based on our technology, we improved the full well of Saturn-M SQR camera to 73Ke , it’s almost 1.5 times than IMX533 Basic (50ke).
High Frame rate
Based on our technology Saturn-M SQR camera can run 43FPS under RAW8 mode, that’s much faster than existing models on market.
Dual Sampling Mode
Saturn SQR series has dual sampling mode. Normal mode and LRN mode, they has different advantages in imaging.
1. Normal mode has faster FPS, it is more suitable for planetary imaging.
2. LRN (low readout noise) mode has lower readout noise and higher dynamic range. it is more suitable for DSO lucky imaging.
Highlights
Non-Amp-Glow
Dark frame of Saturn-C SQR (IMX533) camera is totally “dark”, that’s we called it “Non-Amp-Glow” camera!
300s dark frame of Saturn-C SQR camera(resize to 50%):
Non-Amp-Glow can give us very clean background, much easier to get high quaility images.
Recommended accessories:
ACS (Active Cooling System) is a external air-cooled system, designed for solar and big format planetary cameras which already has PCS (Passive Cooling System).
ACS can provide much better temperature control. When camera has PCS + ACS, temperature is only 7℃ higher than ambient, camera body is a little warm but won’t hot!
ACS is not only can be used in daylight for solar imaging, it also could be used in night for DSO lucky imaging.
https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/active-cooling-system-acs-for-uncooled-cameras/
Saturn SQR camera also very good for lunar and planetary imaging, its 1″ big format and 9MP total pixels, easier to capture full disk of the Moon and the Sun, or make mosaic more efficient.
User works appreciation
Features:
The naming of Player One Astronomy cameras is unique. Planetary camera line, naming depend on the size of planets, Mars(1/3″), Neptune(1/2″), Uranus(1/1.2″), Saturn(1″), Jupiter(4/3″).
Drivers and softwares download: http://player-one-astronomy.com/service/software/
Manuals download: http://player-one-astronomy.com/service/manuals/
Cutting-edge Design
The planetary cameras developed by Player One Astronomy uses a scientific and technological regular hexagon to construct the main body line, supplemented by round chamfers to achieve both rigidity and flexibility. The positive red, which is like a summer fire, is matched with the low-key and steady black, and the super-fine frosting process on the entire surface makes the camera look luxurious and cool, highlighting the style of high-end players, can’t take my eyes off 😀
2nd Gen – Sensor Tilt Plate
When taking deepsky objects, using sensor tilt plate can get a much smaller field curvature of the telescope.
The built-in high-density sponge shading pad can block the light from the side slits without any side leakage.
Passive Cooling System
Player One add a new feature called Passive Cooling System to conduct the heat from the sensor out.
256M DDR3 Cache
Player One Astronomy cameras are the first one who adopts the DDR3 cache in all planetary cameras in the world! It helps stabilize and secure data transmission, it effectively avoids frame dropping and greatly reduces readout noise.
With the DDR3 cache, the camera does not have high demands on computing needs any longer, it will still has excellent performance even if it is connected to a USB 2.0 port.
DPS technology
The planetary cameras from Player One Astronomy have DPS (Dead Pixel Suppression) technology. The DPS is anaylse many dark frames to find out thoes fixed abnormal pixel and record the map in camera memory. In imaging, each exposure frames, thoes position of dead pixels will be given a median value according to the active pixels around that abnormal pixel.
Overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanism
Player One cameras produced by us ensures the safety of your camera and other equipment through overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanisms.
Data Port
When the camera is connected to the USB3.0 interface and full-resolution preview is used, it can reach 43 FPS in RAW8 mode (10bit ADC). When recording images, since the actual writing speed will be affected by the writing speed of the hard disk itself, when the hard disk writing speed is slow, the recording may not reach the theoretical speed. It is recommended that you use a high-quality solid state drive to record data to give full play to the performance of the camera.
Use the ST4 guide cable to connect the camera and the AUTO GUIDE port of the equatorial mount to do guiding.
Performance
HCG open at gain=125. Saturn SQR series has dual sampling mode, Standard mode has faster fps, LRN (low readout noise) mode has lower readout noise and higher dynamic range.
Readout Noise
Regarding readout noise, we solemnly promise that all values are obtained from actual tests. And for users, you could use Sharpcap 4 for testing. SC4 has a function called Sensor Analysis, provide a very simple way to test readout noise.
We wrote a tutorial on our website: https://player-one-astronomy.com/service/manuals/
If you are interested in readout noise testing, you may try it yourself, which is very simple.
QE Curve
Mechanical Drawing
