Player One Apollo-M MAX (IMX432) Mono Astronomy Camera

Player One Apollo-M Max Product Description

Player One Apollo-M Max is a solar camera developed by Player One Astronomy, which adopts the Sony IMX432 1.1” format monochrome sensor. The 9um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 100ke with a total of 1.7MP (the resolution is 1608*1104), and the diagonal is 17.5mm.

Player One Apollo-M Max Pregius Technology

Player One Apollo-M Max is based on Pregius 3rd Generation. But IMX432 is quite different. According to the introduction of technical documents, pixel size of 3rd Gen usually is 4.5um, and full well is 25Ke. But this sensor has 9um pixel, and of course the full well up to 4x (100Ke).

Format

Apollo-M MAX (IMX432) has 1.1″ format, it is pretty big, almost twice of IMX174 chip.

Player One Apollo-M Max Pixel size

9um pixel size is 1.5 times bigger than IMX174 camera, which means it can works at longer focal ratio, such as SCT + Daystar filter(with 4.2X).

Player One Apollo-M Max Full Well

100Ke full well, is 3 times bigger than IMX174. This feature will bring some new possibility in imaging. What we can imagine is HDR the Sun and prominence, or maybe the bright and dark side of the Moon.

HCG and Noise

HCG mode will automatic open when Gain ≥145, readout noise will drop to 4.6e. And dynamic range will rise to 12 drops again. At 380 gain, readout noise of  Player One Apollo-M Max camera is 2.6e, it is lower than IMX174. And full well will still bigger than IMX174.

Highlights

• New Solar Ha imaging and post-processing tutorial (Demonstrate with Apollo-M MAX)