Phil Dyer - Telescopes and Video Cameras for Astronomy
   

WDR CAMERA and MINTRON 12V1 -
DEEPSKY VIDEO IN REAL TIME

These amazing cameras are at the centre of the quiet revolution in amateur astronomy.
These camera are up to 30 times more sensitive than the human eye, at a conservative estimate, and will turn your 8" scope into a 24" one, or a 10" scope into a massive 30".

Or, you could use the cameras as an alternative to an expensive 8 inch or 10 inch scope.
Attach a small 2" lens. You'll go just as "deepsky" as with an 8" or 10" scope, but with a very wide field of view, and you can watch on screen indoors out of the cold.

Your satisfaction is guaranteed. There's a 14 day no quibble money-back guarrantee, and the manufacturer's 12 month guarantee.

The cameras are small (50.5mm x 50.5mm x 115mm) and light (320g). They fit to your telescope in place of the eyepiece (1¼ inch eyepiece adapter available at low cost). View the output on an ordinary TV screen.

Amazing Performance.

At a conservative estimate, the Mintron 12V1-HAD, 12V1-EX and WDR cameras are respectively 3, 3.5 and 4 magnitudes more sensitive than the human eye. You will be astonished at what can be seen with these cameras.

Attached the camera to your 8" telescope, and you will see live on TV everthing that you could see through a 24"scope.

How do I use the Camera?

The cameras are so versatile, and can be used in so many different ways, that you will be spoiled for choice. Accessories are available at low cost so you can buy exactly what you need.

The simplest way is to connect any good quality "C" or "CS" mount lens direct to the camera. While stocks last, an excellent quality used F1.3 Computar lens is included with the camera Complete Kit bought from this web site. Coupled with the camera, the views it shows are unbelievable. It shows all stars down to magnitude 10 or 11 across an incredible 27 degree wide field. Serious astronomical work can could therefore be done with such a lens, in the areas of survey work, meteor showers, comet and novae hunting, artificial earth satellites, etc. You could make a real contribution and never own a telescope. And easier to set up, more portable, easy to mount (even a photographic tripod will do), and on those cold nights you can do your viewing indoors.

The cameras fit directly to standard photographic tripods. If you have SLR camera lenses (such as Nikon, or Canon FD or EOS), then these could also be most successfully used, but for this you would need a C mount adapter. These are available from this website.

You can also connect the cameras to your telescope. A "C to 1.25 eyepiece" adapter is available (see acccessories). Users with 8" SCT scopes (F10) will find my focal reducers a most useful accessory for deep sky work. For high magnification work, like planet imaging, the telescope must be sturdily mounted.

You will then, of course, need to connect the output from the camera to a suitable screen. The simplest way is to attach it to your TV set. Any TV set will do, as long as it has a AV input or a Scart socket. Better still, inlcude a VCR in the setup, and you can record your observations in real time. The camera has sockets for BNC and S-VHS cable connections for video output, and a 2.1mm DC socket for power input. A Cable/Power kit, which includes all cabling (short 3m and long 20m cabling), connectors, and power supply, is available as an accessory.

Connection to a PC or Laptop is also possible. You need a capture device for this, and an excellent one is available from this site. You will also need suitable software, such as Astrovideo. You would then be able to capture your images to disk, to stack images to provide for long exposures, and digitally manipulate your images.

Exciting features

These cameras use the latest Sony CCD imaging chips, and are the most sensitive video systems available to amateur astronomers today.

The cameras can be used on telescopes with drives not quite accurate enough for conventional CCD imaging. Real time video, so focussing and pointing the telescope/lens are very much simpler tasks, compared with conventional CCD cameras.

The cameras are perfect for group viewing. View on screen – no waiting turns at the eyepiece!

Observe the screen indoors, out of the cold.

Record your observations on an ordinary DVD recorder, or to the analogue input of a video camera, recording the time.

Video recordings of meteors enable accurate estimates of time and speed to be made.

Use as a video finder/tracking device for CCD Imaging.

Use the camera for very low light security applications – see what goes on in those dark places. You really can get a TV picture when the light is so low the human eye can see nothing.

How does it work?

The cameras are CCTV video cameras, which incorporate the latest most sensitive Sony video chip with 752 x 582 total pixels. Similar CCD chips of this size are commonly used in CCD cameras costing £900 or more. The cameras are high spec cameras with control buttons and on-screen display for adjusting a wide range of parameters. But what sets the camerasapart from all normal video cameras is it's ability to increase sensitivity by "frame integration". Up to 128 frames can be integrated (Mintron), and up to 510 frames with the WDR. This means that, instead of refreshing the picture 50 times per second, the camera can take a series of longer exposures, up to 2.6 seconds (Mintron) and 10.2 secs (WDR). This results in a high sensitivity picture which is written to the TV screen as video images. No download waiting time! Highest sensitivity is 128x frame integration, but 2x, 4x etc up to 64x can also be selected.

What are the controls for the Mintron cameras?

The cameras are adjusted by five buttons on the back of the camera itself (see image at near bottom of this page). An on-screen display (OSD) shows the various options. This is perfectly satisfactory for Deep Sky work - you generally only need to set the camera once to the optimum settings according to lens/telescope/seeing conditions. Remote control would be superfluous. For planetary and lunar photography however, about six adjustments are necessary for each shot, and so the WDR camera is better suited to this work, as it has the enhancements of remote control via computer (PC lead not supplied). Nevertheless, perfectly good images of bright objects can be made with the 12V1-EX, provided the telescope is sturdily mounted for this high magnification imaging, as the Moon and Jupiter images below demonstrate.

Mintron and CCD Cameras Compared

Of course, these integrating video cameras cannot quite match the long exposure, cooled chip capability of a £900 CCD camera to record fainter objects, but at what cost?. Even so, the cameras can, with the addition of a £39 capture card, share in the CCD camera's abilty to digitise images and enhance them. CCD cameras using the same size chip are not only more expensive, but are far more difficult to set up and use. Focussing, and pointing the camera are relatively simple tasks with the video cameras, with their real-time TV output.

The CCD camera simply cannot match the WDR/Mintron in their ease of use, and theunique ability to display live, real-time moving images of deep sky objects. This feature is not only so very useful in so many areas of astronomy, but it inables the astronomer to share his/her hobby with family and friends. Star parties will never be the same again. See the Comparison Page for a chart comparing the WDR, Mintron, and CCD cameras.

Three Cameras to choose from

Now, for the first time, these camersa allow you to view, live, the raw CCD images of dim objects as they are produced as a continuous TV picture, without having to wait (staring at a blank screen) for images to download, as is the case with CCD cameras. This feature represents a revolution in amateur astronomy, and brings numerous advantages to the astronomer.

Two factors bring this about: the incredible frame-integration technology of the cameras, and use of the SONY sensitive imaging chip. All cameras using the Ex-View chip will show some evidence of dead pixels (false stars) especially at maximum integration/gain settings during warm conditions.

Mintron 12V1 Cameras

The differences between the cameras is that the Mintron 12v1-EX uses the Sony Ex-view 1/2" imaging chip, whereas the 12v1-HAD uses the Sony HAD chip. The chips size of the Mintrons is 1/2", and the cameras are exclusively monochrome (black and white) cameras. The ex-view version is slightly more sensitive.

WDR Camera

The WDR camera uses a smaller 1/3" Sony chip, but has the same number of pixels. It has exposure time of up to 10 secs, compared with 2.5 secs for the Mintrons, and is therefore more sensiitive. It is a true day and night camera, with mechanical filters to deliver high sensitivity in dim conditions, while at the same time allowing the camera to produce correctly balance colour images. In B/W mode, the WDR easily exceeds the sensitivity of the Mintron Cameras, and its colour images show almost as much sensitivity as the BW images from the Mintrons.

Other Uses for the Cameras

Of course, the cameras can also be used for nocturnal security purposes, surveillance, or nocturnal wildlife, etc. First-time users never fail to be amazed at what the Mintron will show in very dark conditions. The shorter exposure times of the Mintron cameras make them more suited to this work.

Accessories

Please note that, unless you are to use the camera with a C or CS mount lens, you will require an eyepiece adapter to connect the camera to your telescope. You will also require a 12V regulated power suply, and cable to connect the output from the camera to a TV. These accessories, and more, included in the Full Kit camera packages or are are available separately at modest cost - See the Accessories Page.


The Pleiades
What you can expect to see on screen with a 2" scope!

Click on the image for a larger view.

Actually, this image was captured to PC with the Mintron attached to an ordinary 8x50mm finderscope.
It shows stars to about magnitude 13 and is a good indication of what the Mintron will show live on a TV/monitor screen when attached to very small scopes.



Mintron 12v1-EX and 12V-HAD cameras are identical in appearance.
Lens shown is included in the Mintron Camera Complete Kit (used 12.5mm f1.3 Computar). An adapter to mount the camera at the eyepiece tube of a telescope, short 3m and long 20m cabling, and power supply are also included in the Complete Kit, or are available separately.


TO ORDER, AND FOR KIT DETAILS, CLICK HERE



Customers' Comments:



Images by Jesper Sorensen, who used a 12" LX200, and RGB filters to create these images with the Mintron 12V1-EX camera.

Jesper told me:
"I thought you might be interested to see my best Jupiter images in 5 years of trying. It was the Mintron Exview that enabled me to do it - and good seeing. Jupiter is low in the sky this season up here in Denmark, so I'm very happy with the result.
Should you like to use the image, please feel free to do so."
Jesper Sorensen, Copenhagen, March 2004


"I just cannot believe what this camera does.

......I quickly set up the Mintron with the 75mm Computar lens on a camera tripod... Set the options for maximum deep sky and pointed it towards the Orion Nebula. Absolutely amazing! The 'wings' of the nebula were stretching out quite wide and the image was beautifully sprinkled with many, many stars. Certainly Theta Orionis was overexposed in the centre of the nebula but the view was incredible even with a half moon not far away casting its milky glow right across the faint mistyness of the sky. The image quality was wonderful with a large dynamic range of star brightnesses from tiny threshold pinpoints to very bright spots. I got my 10 x 50 binoculars out which have the same field, but the view was absolutely dismall by comparison.

......Wherever the camera was pointed the number of stars visible was amazing. The milky way through Monoceros to Auriga was breathtaking.

That night the sky was poor .... I doubt if the naked eye limiting magnitude was better than 3.5 or 4.
I think the temperature was a little above zero".

The above are comments by Mr P S of Mansfield, Notts. 10 Feb 2003, after his first (20 minute) observing session with the Mintron.


"Just to let you know that the camera arrived today. Thank you very much, it as an amazing piece of kit, even using my humble ETX70 the results are stunning. ...... it was just incredible what the camera could pick up through a moonlit sky. It is worth every penny".

Comment by Mr R S of Orkney. 15 Feb 2003.


The Mintron gives superb results when attached to camera lenses.
In this case it's a 400mm f6.3 telephoto.


M31 - 12V1-EX and small 80mm f5 lens
Fantastic results can be achieved with lenses of short focal ratio

This is the Mintron attached to an Eneo 75mm f1.3 lens.
THE FOLLOWING IMAGES WERE ALL TAKEN WITH THE MINTRON EX CAMERA ATTACHED TO A PC (capture card) AND AN 8" SCT SCOPE.



m27


NGC5866


Jupiter


Apenines

Optional Cable/Power Kit.
Good value at £23.00

The Mintron's rear control panel





Mintron Starlight


Mintron 12V1-EX Technical Specifications
Image device1/2" inline transfer SONY CCD
Signal systemCCIR
Picture element795(H) x 596(V)
Scanning system2 : 1 interlace
S/N ratioMore than 52dB
Resolution 600 TV-Lines
Minimum illumination
Typical0.01 Lux @ F1.2, 5600K, 30IRE
Star light mode0.0001 to 0.00005 Lux @ F0.8, 5600K, 10IRE
White balance ---
Gain control Selectable by OSD (On Screen Display)
Mode AGC ON / OFF /MANU
Range 0 ~ 18dB
Shutter controlSelectable by OSD
ModeOFF / AUTO / MANU 1/50 ~ 1/120 000 second
Auto iris lensAES / DC
Gamma0.45
Back light compensationON / OFF ,48 zone, selectable by OSD
Negative imageON / OFF, Selectable by OSD
Mirror functionON / OFF, Selectable by OSD
Digital zoom1...2x, Selectable by OSD
Masking area4 x, Selectable by OSD
Video output signalBAS and Y/C: 1Vpp, 75 Ohm load
Lens mountC & CS acceptable
Operation temp.-20°C ~ 50°C, 85% RH
Power supplyDC 12V
Power consumption180mA
Dimensions115mm(L), 51mm(W), 51mm(H)