ALPHEA camera is our entry market camera, low cost, featuring high sensitivity camera using backside illuminated CMOS sensors.
The purpose of these systems is to carry out All or Full Sky surveillance of the night or day sky, and in a continuous fashion. It is possible to assess, in real time, the night sky quality, and to record fast phenomena (meteors and fireballs) or slower (satellites, rockets, noctilucent clouds, zodiacal light, aurora, airglow ....).
Thanks to its high sensitivity, this system can record a very good image quality of the night sky, while producing images of stars that will not be trailed by natural Earth rotation, no star tracking is required.
Here is a PDF file describing how our ALL-SKY camera can be used for (application fields)
See HERE a real time view of some of our ALL SKY camera running worldwide.
Ordering information :
• Please contact us for information and pricing concerning this camera.
ALPHEA 6ML image samples
IMPORTANT : PLEASE Click on the image to get full resolution image, all images presented hereafter are reduced to fit this page. All images have been recorded in a dark site in France, with some cities located 45 km appart.
ALL images are raw, no dark frame removed, outdoor temperature was +9°C
To keep the price as low as possible, this camera does not have dome heating system to prevent dew from developing, nor auto-iris, to get
such features please look at our OMEA camera web page.
Six cameras type are proposed to accomodate customer requirements
| Name |
Sensor |
Fisheye circle
"Illuminated" pixels |
Detector resolution |
Field of view |
Pixel Scale |
Daylight
imaging |
Production
Status |
| ALPHEA 6ML |
Monochrome |
4.5 Million pixels |
3100 x 2100 pixels |
180° x 130° |
3.3 arcmin/pix |
Yes |
Discontinued |
| ALPHEA 6CL |
Color |
4.5 Million pixels |
3100 x 2100 pixels |
180° x 130° |
3.3 arcmin/pix |
Yes |
Yes |
| ALPHEA 6MW |
Monochrome |
2.7 Million pixels |
3100 x 2100 pixels |
180° x 180° |
5.4 arcmin/pix |
Yes |
Discontinued |
| ALPHEA 6CW |
Color |
2.7 Million pixels |
3100 x 2100 pixels |
180° x 180° |
5.4 arcmin/pix |
Yes |
Yes |
| ALPHEA 3MW |
Monochrome |
5.5 Million pixels |
3000 x 3000 pixels |
180° x 180° |
3.3 arcmin/pix |
No (saturation) |
Contact us |
| ALPHEA 3CW |
Color |
5.5 Million pixels |
3000 x 3000 pixels |
180° x 180° |
3.3 arcmin/pix |
No (saturation) |
Contact us |
35 sec exposure - click image to get full res.
ALPHEA 6CL image samples
ALPHEA 6CW image samples
ALPHEA 6MW image samples
ALPHEA 3CW image samples (same pixels size as ALPHEA 6xL, offering 180x180° Field of view instead of 180x130°)
Parameter |
Value |
Field of view |
180° x 180 ° or 180° x 130°
See images above to assess this performance |
Camera resolution |
ALPHEA 6xx - 3100 x 2100 (6 Mpixels) 2.4 x 2.4 µm pixel
ALPHEA 3xx - 3000 x 3000 (9 Mpixels) 2.4 x 2.4 µm pixel
All Backside illuminated CMOS sensor (BSI) Ultra low readout noise.
No mechanical shutter ALPHEA 6xx/3xx : rolling shutter |
ADC resolution |
ALPHEA 6xx : 14 bits ALPHEA 3xx :12 bits
|
Video stream |
(USB 2.0) ALPHEA 6xx : 7 fps and ALPHEA 3xx :3 fps
AVI output or snap image mode |
Exposure time |
From 32µs to many hours of exposure (all sky mode, typically 30s to 60s) |
Gain |
Variable (from 1e- / ADU downto 0.05 e- / ADU) |
| Gamma |
Tunable +50 units to -50 units |
| Cooling |
Passive from camera body dissipation, no active cooling |
Image download time |
< 20 ms |
Control software |
ALCOR SYSTEM Windows AllSky software supplied at no additionnal costs, SDK on request |
Operating system |
Windows (Seven, 8, 10) 32 & 64bits
Linux (contact us, SDK available) |
To PC interface |
USB 2.0 / 20 m length cable, perfectly reliable operation. Ethernet link on request. |
Top dome heater |
Manual enable/disable operation from the user, some watts are injected to remove dew. |
Power supply |
PC powered, 24V and 0.1A |
| Filter wheel |
None |
| Daylight imaging |
ALPHEA 6xx/3xx Capable |
| Auto-iris |
None, fixed F/1.6 lens
Day operation possible with ALPHA 6xx/3xx with lowest gain and exposure time (32µs)
|
| Focus adjustement |
None, factory tuned |
Other informations |
Tight to bad weather condtions (rain/snow), anodized aluminium casing, acrylic dome, water tight connectors / IP67 protection |
Weight |
1.5 kg |
Dimensions |
125mm diameter, 120 mm height |
Operating temperature range |
from -40°C to +45°C |
Due to larger pixel size, sensitivity is increased and daylight imaging is at best with this camera, even at lowest exposure time (i.e 32µs), some part of the image can saturate
ALPHEA 3CW image samples
Day image, with 320µs exposure time, full lens aperture (note that the minimum exposure is 32µs)
35 sec exposure - click image to get full res.
45 sec exposure - click image to get full res.
Day image, with 150µs exposure time, full lens aperture (note that the minimum exposure is 32µs)
Night image, light polluted place ! 30 sec exposure. 5.5 millions pixels circle image
Day image, with 320µs exposure time, full lens aperture (note that the minimum exposure is 32µs).
45 sec exposure - click image to get full res.
Specifications :
click image to get full res.
Click image to get full res.
Camera support can be supplied (picture below), so that to minimize time for installation. This is an optionnal feature. Please ask for it, if needed.
35 sec exposure - click image to get full res. At SpaceObs, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, facilities held by A.Maury. Milky way center is at zenith
Application fields of this camera are (in a nutshell) :
- Astronomy
Cloud cover and transparency map, Robotic telescopes farms, no mobile parts.
- Free Space Optics (FSO) communication
Cloud cover and transparency map, Site survey, Network architecture design and balancing
- Atmospheric studies
Atmospheric transparency, urban light pollution monitoring, northern lights, passive optical sensing. Network of AllSky camera
- Defense
Realtime and passive optical detection for satellite re-entry, planes and drones. Network of camera to cover larger territory
- Solar Power
Cloud cover, transparency map, site survey and power production forecasting.
Software
Either our custom made Alcor System software or
SDK can be provided so that any custom algorithm can be implemented by the end user.
