Description

Player One Apollo-M MINI USB3.0 Mono Camera IMX429

Focus on Solar imaging!

Apollo series is the world’s first camera line designed specifically for solar photography, named after Apollo. The Apollo series features Sony sensors with global shutters and a focus on monochrome sensors.

Apollo-M MINI is a solar camera developed by Player One Astronomy, which adopts the Sony IMX429 2 3” format monochrome sensor. The 4.5um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 24.8Ke with a total of 2.8MP  (the resolution is 1944*1472), and the diagonal is 11mm.

Pregius Technology

Apollo-M MINI (IMX429) is based on Pregius 3rd Generation. According to the introduction of technical documents, pixel size of 3rd Gen usually is 4.5um, and full well is 25Ke.

Apollo-M MINI (IMX429) has 2 3″ format, this size is between IMX178 and IMX174.

Pixel size

4.5um pixel size is smaller than IMX174 camera, which means it can works provide higher resolution in same focal length.

HCG mode

Apollo-M MINI has HCG mode, when Gain>71 HCG will open automatically.

Highlights

With global shutter, Apollo-M MINI are very suitable for sun and space station imaging. 4.5um pixel size and resolution 1944*1472, very easy to get high resolution images of the Sun.

Recommended accessories:

ACS (Active Cooling System)

ACS 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

For better contrast, Player One Photosphere 10nm filter will be a good choice.

Photosphere in white light

Introducing the new 1.25″ ERF filter for Quark Chromosphere (Ha verstion) , intended to reject energy and extend life time of your Quark.

With Lunt or other solar telescopes, Apollo-M MINI also can provide very good performance @ f15-f20 focal ratio.

Apollo-M MINI users:

Akihiro Yamazaki : CFF200mm (F8), PowerMate 4x, Daystar ION (0.5A), Player One Apollo-M MINI

Akihiro Yamazaki : CFF200mm (F8), PowerMate 4x, Daystar ION (0.5A), Player One Apollo-M MINI

With Daystar Quark (4.2X version), we found that if use Bin2 mode, 4.5um become 9um, both full-well and brightness will increase 4X.

In 16bit RAW data, BIN2 mode can provide real 14bit data, it’s a big advantages in imaging and post-processing.

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 orange, which is imply solar, 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 solar photograph with prominence telescope, the Newton ring is annoying. Smoother solar image without Newton ring could be taken by adjusting the focal plate. 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

Solar cameras working in daylight, temperature could be much higher than night. Heat of global shutter sensors will be a problem, especially some big format like IMX432. 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 adpots 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 readnoise.

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.