High technology camera

Mars-C is a planetary camera developed by Player One Astronomy, which adopts the Sony IMX462 1/2.8” format sensor. The 2.9um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 12ke with a total of 2.1MP  (the resolution is 1944*1096), and the diagonal is 6.46 mm.

Planetary camera Mars-C Highlights

Mars-C has super high sensitivity and ultra-low readout noise. All of these features provide users with excellent performance for planetary imaging, like Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,  as well as solar and lunar imaging.

The fun thing is, with the strong ability in capturing infrared lights and the super-high sensitivity, the Mars-C camera can be used as a monochrome camera with an IR850 filter or CH4 filter to capture infrared lights.

Connecting the Mars-C camera to a telescope with a 1.25″ T-Mount, or adding a Barlow lens between the camera and a telescope to extend the focal length for more details.

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.

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.

DPS technology

The planetary cameras from Player One Astronomy have DPS (Dead Pixel Suppression) technology. The DPS is anaylse many dark frames to find out thoes fixed abnormal pixel and record the map in camera memory. In imaging, each exposure frames, thoes position of dead pixels will be given a median value according to the active pixels around that abnormal pixel.

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, provide a very simple way to test readout noise.

After many rigorous readout noise tests, the Mars-C camera can reach a low readout noise of 0.73e at a gain of 350 and around 0.7e at a gain of 400.

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

HCG  Mode

The Mars-C camera has a unique HCG mode, which will automatically turn on when the camera gain setting is ≥80. The HCG mode can greatly reduce the readout noise and retain the same high dynamic range as the low gain.

QE Curve

The QE curve of the Mars-C camera is unique. The sensitivity reaches its peak at 800-850nm, and the RGB is gathered together, which has very strong infrared sensitivity.

Caractéristics

• Sensor: SONY IMX462 1/2.8″ CMOS (color)
• Diagonal: 6.5mm
• Total Pixels: 2.1 Mega Pixels
• Max Resolution: 1944×1096
• Pixel Size: 2.9μm
• Chip Size: 5.6mm×3.2mm
• Frame Rate: 136FPS（10bit）
• Exposure Range: 32μs-2000s
• Shutter: Rolling Shutter
• Bayer: RGGB
• Readout Noise: 2.6e~0.7e
• QE Peak: ≈80%
• Full Well: 12k e
• ADC: 12 bit
• Data Port: USB3.0/USB2.0
• Adapter: 1.25″ / M42X0.75
• Back Focal Length: 12.5mm
• Protective Window: D32*2MM High Quality AR Plus (Anti Reflection) Multi-Layer Coating
• Diameter: 66mm
• Weight: 180g
• Resolution and FPS:
  Under USB3.0 mode
  Resolution 12bit ADC 10bit ADC
  1944×1096 62.5 FPS 136 FPS
  1920×1080 63.5 FPS 138 FPS
  1280×720 94.1 FPS 205 FPS
  800×600 112.4 FPS 245 FPS
  640×480 139.3 FPS 304 FPS
  More resolution options could be setup in capture softewares!

Delivery: