1996 Imaging Conference Announcements

1996 Imaging Conference Announcements

The 1996 CCD Imaging Conference was an outstanding success. It exceeded all of our expectations. We had 200 attendees and had to turn away many last minute people who wanted to come. The attendees had an opportunity to learn about SBIG and Software Bisque products, to get all of their questions answered, to hear a group of guest speakers talk on advanced applications.

I recognize that not all of you could have come to see the enthusiasm of this conference. We video taped the entire conference and as soon as the tapes are edited we will make them available to you. The price of the set will be $ 99.00 (International conversions to PAL or SECAM are available at an additional cost and on request). The video set covers all topics discussed during the conference with a question and answer period during and after each topic. For information please contact Keith Gaskins at .

At this conference we introduced three new products which I believe will be of interest to you.

Paramount GT-1100

Over the previous year we have collaborated with Software Bisque to develop the Paramount GT-1100; a new and unique telescope mount. This robotic telescope mount, which will support many different optical telescopes, has pointing and tracking capabilities not found in other telescope mounts. SBIG developed the interface electronics to support computer control of the telescope and CCD imaging processes while Software Bisque developed the mechanical mount, remote astronomy software and modeling software. This product was introduced and demonstrated at the conference. Software Bisque will market this product under their company name and we urge each of you to contact them for more information on this new product.

PixCel255

Over the previous year we have also collaborated with Celestron International in the development of a new telescope imaging system. The system consist of a small CCD imaging camera with an internal color filter wheel similar in design to the Model ST-5. This small profile imaging camera (PixCel 255) is mounted directly at the internal prime focus of a new and unique SCT (FaStar) that allows imaging at f/1.95, f/6.3, or f/10. The wide field images at f/1.95 are outstanding and are possible because of the small 10 micron square pixels in this imaging camera plus Celestron's remarkable optical design. The SBIG imaging camera and software incorporated into the new FASTAR telescope are easy to use. You are going to hear a lot about this new system as users begin to understand how unique this telescope imaging system is.

The PixCel 255 can be purchased separately from Celestron and will work with other telescopes. The PixCel 255 is a product for the exclusive use of Celestron in all telescopic or astronomical applications. SBIG has reserved the market rights to this product for non-astronomical applications. We believe there will be much interest in the field of color microscopy and other industrial applications and urge you to deal direct with SBIG on these applications.

Adaptive Optics

For many months we have been working closely with Benoit Schillings and Brad Wallis on the development of a new technology - Adaptive Optics. We successfully completed developmental testing and demonstrated this new technology at the imaging conference in an exciting presentation. We have developed hardware and software that optically corrects the telescopic image at a 20 to 30 Hz rate. When an image is corrected at this fast rate almost all telescope errors are eliminated as are many of the atmospheric turbulence cell errors which directly reduce the resolution of images.

It is difficult to explain the excitement at the conference when two ST-7 imaged guide stars were simultaneously displayed on the screen; one was constantly scintillating from the atmospheric turbulence while the second star was relatively steady due to the Adaptive Optics system it passed through. Having completed our developmental phase we are now starting work on a production design to be marketed starting in January. The Adaptive Optics product uses the second CCD detector (the guiding CCD) in the Model ST-7 and ST-8 imaging cameras as the input signals to control the Adaptive Optics system. This is a very major advance in our industry and you can be certain you will have wide interest in this product and its capabilities.

Thank you for your continued interest in our products. If you have any questions or require any further information on these items please let us know.