Player One Poseidon-C Pro Color Cooled Astrophotography Camera

A 16-bit ADC captures 65,536 brightness levels, compared to just 4,096 levels for a 12-bit ADC. This higher bit depth provides smoother gradients and tonal transitions in faint objects like nebulae and galactic dust lanes. 16-bit data endures very strong non-linear stretches.

The extremely deep 71.7k e- full well allows the camera's pixels to collect more photons before becoming saturated. When imaging M42, this means you can use longer exposures to capture the faint outer nebulosity without completely blowing out the bright Trapezium star cluster at the core. This high dynamic range makes it easier to capture the full brightness range of the object in a single set of exposures.

Yes. The large APS-C sensor (23.5mm x 15.7mm) provides a field of view of approximately 1.7° x 1.1° at an 800mm focal length. That frames the core and inner arms of M31; the galaxy's full 3° span needs a two-panel mosaic. The 4-point tilt plate lets you correct sensor tilt, which matters more on fast systems.

The standard 17.5mm applies with the tilt plate installed. Removing the tilt plate gives 12.5mm, 5mm more room for accessories within the back focus your coma corrector or flattener needs (often 55mm). Player One's BFL solution drawings show combinations; some use 56mm to make up for filters.

The Poseidon-C Pro does not include a power supply. To power the TEC cooling system, you must use an external 12V DC power adapter with a DC 5.5x2.1mm plug. While the camera's maximum power consumption is 3A, use a power adapter with a minimum rating of 5A.

To get started, you will need to download and install the latest drivers from the Player One Astronomy website. Player One provides an ASCOM driver, and its manual mentions SharpCap 4, whose Sensor Analysis function lets you test the readout noise yourself. After installing the drivers, simply connect the camera to your computer via the USB 3.0 cable, connect the 12V power supply for cooling, and select the Player One camera in your imaging software.

The Poseidon-C Pro offers two readout modes for different applications:

• Normal Mode: This mode has a faster frame rate, and it suits planetary imaging.
• Low Noise (LRN) Mode: This mode is optimized for deep-sky imaging. It has lower readout noise and a higher dynamic range, and it suits deep-sky imaging.

The camera has an anti-dew heater integrated at the front of the camera. Its power is adjustable in the ASCOM window; 10% is recommended.

It is designed for deep-sky imaging, but its Normal mode, with the faster frame rate, suits planetary imaging. By defining a smaller Region of Interest (ROI), such as 1920x1080, the camera can achieve frame rates up to 70 FPS in 8-bit mode. This high frame rate is crucial for "lucky imaging," allowing you to capture thousands of frames in a short period to freeze moments of good atmospheric seeing.

Player One made the front piece of the camera round to avoid diffraction on a RASA, where the camera sits in front of the mirror. The camera body is 90mm in diameter.

Yes, you should always take dark frames. While the Poseidon-C Pro is a Non-Amp-Glow camera, dark frames are still necessary to calibrate out other noise sources, including thermal signal (dark current) and fixed-pattern noise. Cooling the sensor dramatically reduces dark current, but it doesn't eliminate it entirely. A good library of dark frames matched to your exposure time, gain, and sensor temperature is good practice.

The main advantage of a one-shot color camera like the Poseidon-C Pro is efficiency. It captures red, green, and blue data simultaneously, allowing you to create a full-color image from a single set of exposures. A monochrome camera needs a filter wheel and separate exposures through L, R, G and B filters.