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

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.

Now, we launch 4 models of Apollo cameras:

Apollo-M MAX (IMX432), 1.1-inch sensor, monochrome.

Apollo-M MINI (IMX429), 2/3 inch sensor, monochrome.

Apollo-M (IMX174), 1/1.2 inch sensor, monochrome.

Apollo-C (IMX174) , 1/1.2 inch sensor, color.

* Notice: Solar cameras require energy rejection and light reducer, such as Baader film or Herschel wedge. Please DO NOT use it directly to image the Sun.  

Product Description

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 good 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, the pixel size of 3rd Gen usually is 4.5um, and the full well is 25Ke.

Format

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

Pixel size

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

HCG mode

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

Highlights

With a global shutter, Apollo-M MINI is 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 an external air-cooled system, designed for solar and big format planetary cameras that already has PCS (Passive Cooling System). ACS can provide much better temperature control. When the camera has PCS + ACS, the temperature is only 7℃ higher than ambient, the camera body is a little warm but won't be hot! ACS can not only be used in daylight for solar imaging, it also could be used in night for DSO lucky imaging.

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

Features:

The naming of Player One Astronomy cameras is unique. Solar camera line, named after Apollo, the god of the sun. The suffix of the name describes the camera’s biggest feature.

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 use 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 implies 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 a solar photograph with a prominence telescope, the Newton ring is annoying. A smoother solar image without a 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 work in daylight, the temperature could be much higher than at night. The heat of global shutter sensors will be a problem, especially in some big formats like IMX432. Player One added 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 ones who add 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 read noise.

With the DDR3 cache, the camera does not have high demands on computing needs any longer, it will still have 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 analyzes many dark frames to find out those fixed abnormal pixels and records the map in camera memory. In imaging, in each exposure frame, those positions 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 the number one player ensure the safety of your camera and other equipment through overvoltage and overcurrent protection mechanisms.

Data Port

When the camera is connected to the USB 3.0 interface and full-resolution preview is used, it can reach 84 FPS in RAW8 mode (12-bit 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 the guiding.

Performance

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, which provides a very simple way to test readout noise.

Player One wrote a tutorial on their website: https://player-one-astronomy.com/service/manuals/

After many rigorous readout noise tests, this camera can reach a low readout noise of 1.45e at a gain of 380.

If you are interested in readout noise testing, you may try it yourself, which is very simple.

QE Curve

Absolute Peak Value is about 79%.

HCG  Mode

The Apollo-M MINI camera has a unique HCG mode. The HCG mode can greatly reduce the readout noise and retain the same high dynamic range as the low gain.

Mechanical Drawing

Specifications