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APM Professional Telescopes

1m F/8 Ritchey Chrétien with dual Nasmyth Foci, Cape Town (South Africa)

Another large telescope for the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). An 1m F/8 Alt-Az mounted Ritchey Chrétien for robotic use. It has dual Nasmyth Foci. The main telescopes used for research are located at the SAAO observing station (32°22.795’S 20°48,657’E) near Sutherland in the Northern Cape, a 4-hour drive from Cape Town.

ASA Telescopes

ASA600 with DDM200

ASA600 OTA is the perfect fit for the ASA direct drive mounts with absolute encoders. As all ASA telescopes the ASA600 is equipped with quartz glass optics from ASA.

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Chroma Filter

Optical Filters for Astronomy Applications - made in USA

Andor Cameras

Andor ZL41

Introducing the ZL41 Wave family

Introducing the ZL41 Wave familyAndor’s ZL41 Wave physical sciences workhorse sCMOS camera platform delivers sheer excellence in speed, sensitivity, dynamic range and resolution, with comprehensive imaging and spectroscopyfunctionalities. Building upon the strengths of the original Zyla sCMOS series, the cost-effective, multi-functional, compact, thermoelectrically cooled design of ZL41 Wave benefits from a reengineered and enhanced sensor chamber and is supported within a wide range of physical science software environments, integrating perfectly into any optical laboratory or observatory setting.

zl41 specs

zl41 data

ZL41 Wave 4.2: Superior Sensitivity

ZL41 Wave 4.2 provides exceptional sensitivity from a combination of 82% QE and very low 0.9 e- read noise from a 4.2 Megapixel sensor. Ideal for pushing frame rates in light starved applications within astronomy, quantum imaging, quantum computing, spectroscopy and 3D-tomography fields.

ZL41 Wave 5.5: Global Shutter and Large Field of View

ZL41 Wave 5.5 is an ideal workhorse camera, a highly cost-effective and flexible solutionthat delivers a superior field of view from a 5.5 Megapixel sensor. Furthermore, this camera offers 2-in-1 rolling and true global shutter functionality. Global shutter is key to techniques such as particle imaging velocimetry (PIV), astronomical object tracking and fluid dynamics.

ZL41 Wave for Extended Dynamic Range

ZL41 Wave for Spectroscopy

Dual Amplifiers (16-bit mode)

On-chip dual-amplifier design means the whole photometric range, from the noise floor up to the saturation limit, can be captured with one image. The wide dynamic range is complemented by enhanced on-head intelligence to deliver linearity > 99.8%, for unparalleled quantitative photometric accuracy across the full signal range.

32-bit binning mode

Many applications require pixel binning in order to (a) boost SNR via an expanded photon collection area (via the binned pixel area), and (b) further extend dynamic range through an increased pixel well depth (which scales linearly with the number of binned pixels). Vertical binning of pixels is also standard in spectroscopy mode. The ZL41 Wave maintains dynamic range through extensive binning with a user-definable bit depth selection, which offers up to 32-bit upstream data packaging to overcome the limitation of standard 16-bit data transfer through the CameraLink or USB3 interface.

Fast stacking (accumulation) of images or spectra

The ZL41 Wave is exceptionally well suited to massively extending dynamic range through fast stacking of images or spectra. sCMOS technology is ideally suited to this approach as it is capable of very fast frame rates with an ultra-low read noise.

Andor’s ZL41

Wave bundles multiple approaches to achieving extended dynamic range imaging and spectroscopy.

Dynamic Range and Effective

Well Depth as a function of the number of stacked (accumulated) frames, plotted for ZL41 Wave. A Dynamic Range of 164,300:1, and a corresponding Effective Well Depth of 900,000 electrons can be reached with only 30 stacked frames. At maximum frame rate, this number of accumulated frames takes only 0.3 secs to acquire, achieving 3.3 fps. This capability is significant for a range of challenges across imaging and spectroscopic characterisations.

Key Features

fastframerate Fast Frame Rate

ZL41 models read out a full frame in only 10 milliseconds, enabling 100 fps, and can measure dynamics across timescales ranging from milliseconds to tens of seconds. Ideal for measuring rapid photometric/astrometric variability and fast imaging of quantum phenomena.

High Sensitivity

The parallel readout architecture and innovative pixel design enables ZL41 Wave to drive very low read noise performance of < 1 e-, while still achieving maximum readout speed and full dynamic range. The ZL41 Wave 4.2 delivers a peak QE of 82%, with broad response across the UV-VIS-NIR range, with zero etaloning in the near infra-red.

6.5µ Pixel

The 6.5 μm pixel sizes of ZL41 models offer a solution to more closely resolution match the camera to the specific optical configuration. Pixel binning with 32-bit digitization offers further usage flexibility.

PIV Capability

The ZL41 Wave 5.5 model is well suited to the Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) technique for flow visualisation. Temporal resolution between image pairs is a key requirement of this approach and the global shutter mode of this camera can be harnessed to deliver an optical inter-frame gap of down to ~ 100 ns.

Resolution Enhancement

Lucky/Speckle Imaging – ZL41 Wave can be used for the ‘Atmospheric Freezing’ techniques of Lucky and Speckle Imaging, enabling resolution enhancement of ground-based astronomy. The 100 fps (full array) with 100% duty cycle means that enhanced resolution images can be generated within a few seconds of acquisition. Wavefront Sensing – ZL41 Wave is a fast wavefront sensor for Adaptive Optics, for example a 128x128 Region of Interest of ZL41 Wave 4.2 yielding 1627 fps.

Low Maintenance Astronomy

ZL41 Wave has been tested down to -20oC, suited for use at observatories where night observations routinely occur in sub-zero ambient conditions.

Comprehensive Software Solution

ZL41 Wave offers an extensive portfolio of software compatibility solutions, assembled with physical science users in mind. Our accessible sCMOS SDK (SDK3), with full documentation, is available with Python, LabView and MATLAB wrappers. We also offer support for open source platforms such as ASCOM, EPICS and Tango Lima.

Large Enhanced Sensor Enclosure

Building upon the strengths of the original Zyla sCMOS camera series, ZL41 Wave benefits from an updated sensor chamber design and manufacture process, as well as a comprehensive seal test procedure, providing even greater long-term protection from condensation ingress in high humidity environments (3 year chamber warranty).

noshut No Mechanical Shutter

Applications that involve frequent cycling of mechanical shutters, such as X-Ray Tomography or Large Sky Surveys, require routine shutter replacements and associated down time. ZL41 Wave offers on-sensor Rolling and Global electronic shutter, thus overcoming the need for mechanical shutters. This furthermore avoids the exposure gradient effects associated with of iris shutter, thus much better for accurate photometry.

Sky Surveys

Large arrays of cost-effective, high performance ZL41 Wave cameras can be very effectively deployed to continuously and quantitatively monitor huge sections of the night sky, looking for photometric or astrometric changes or occultations across a range of time-resolutions. Whether used for Near-Earth Object (NEO) detection, Orbital Debris tracking or Exoplanet hunting, ZL41 Wave 4.2 offers highest sensitivity, facilitating detection of smaller objects or minor occultations. Alternatively, the ZL41 Wave 5.5 model offers true global shutter, which can be important in the context of tracking moving objects relative to a reference background of stars.

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Andor ZL41 Drawing

APM Professional Telescopes

1m F/8 Ritchey Chrétien with dual Nasmyth Foci, Cape Town (South Africa)

Another large telescope for the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO). An 1m F/8 Alt-Az mounted Ritchey Chrétien for robotic use. It has dual Nasmyth Foci. The main telescopes used for research are located at the SAAO observing station (32°22.795’S 20°48,657’E) near Sutherland in the Northern Cape, a 4-hour drive from Cape Town.