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CCTV cameras have started a revolution in the field of digital imaging. In particular the ultra-sensitive monochrome cameras offer the unique ability to display deep sky objects on a monitor as live-stream! With nearly no effort you can see the spiral arms of galaxies, small details in gas nebulae, ...

The same features that make the camera so superbly suited for live-streaming make them ideal for guiding purposes as well! Be it as fully automatic autoguider or as a very convenient alternative to a reticle eyepiece, these cameras offer excellent performance!
Mintron Monochrome Camera
Highly sensitive camera for live-stream observing of deep sky objects and for guiding


M13 - "near" live image seen on the monitor. Less than one second exposure time!

M1 - end result of a series of images taken with this camera and superimposed by digital image processing.

MTV 12 V6 EX

This is one of the most sensitive cameras we know. You will see stars on the monitor that are normally at the edge of visibility. And this feat is not achieved by a long exposure time, but in "almost" live-stream (a new image every second). You can change the settings of the camera (gain, exposure time, ...) easily on the monitor.

The camera is also very robust. CCTV cameras are often permanently set up outdoors, so unless you use force you will hardly be able to damage the camera!

All of this offers a unique ease of use unparalleled by most other cameras with similar performance stats!

High performance camera for astro-imaging and live-streaming

-- Live-Streaming: A large number of deep sky objects is visible in "near"-live stream. For example the central star of the Ring Nebula can be seen after only 2 seconds exposure in moderate aperture telescopes! You can use the camera for public shows in observatories, to augment the conventional observations. Visitors often have difficulties to look through a telescope, but everybody knows how to watch TV!

-- Astro-Imaging:  The short exposure times of the Mintron camera open up an entirely different way of doing astro-imaging. Normally you would need a guide scope, a reticle eyepiece or guiding camera, a very accurate mount, ... Not so with the Mintron: Single exposures are only about 2 seconds at maximum setting. You just activate the camera, save the video stream on your computer and add the images up later. Small tracking errors have no negative influence in this case.

-- Gas nebulae and galaxies can be seen with details even in small telescopes where the same objects can hardly be seen at all in the same telescope without the help of such a camera.

Autoguiding or "Live-Stream Guiding"

With its extremely high sensitivity the Mintron camera is ideally suited for guiding purposes. Often autoguiding cameras need bright stars in order to function properly. The Mintron is so sensitive that you can use quite faint stars for guiding.

A frame grabber is used to convert the camera's analog signal into a computer-readable digital signal. Then an autoguiding software interprets the data and sends correcting commands to the mount. An example of this is the freeware Guidemaster

A third way of guiding (besides conventional guiding and full-fledged autoguiding) is "Live-Stream Guiding". This means that you use a 12V monitor (or if you work at home a normal TV set) to watch the live stream from the Mintron camera. With a pasted-on crosshair you can observe the guide star and manually correct the mount's movement if needed. The advantage: This is a lot more comfortable than looking through a reticle eyepiece for prolonged periods of time! It is also a nice alternative for amateur astronomers who are not perfectly at ease with computers.



Guidemaster - a warmly recommended free autoguiding software that works well with most mounts and guiding cameras.
Scope of Delivery & Specs

-- Mintron MTV 12 V6 EX camera
-- cable connection (SVHS and BHC), no cable included
-- analog video output. Can be converted to a digital signal with a framegrabber
-- C-mount thread for telescope adaptation
-- Sensitivity 0.0001 Lux
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Please send requests or online orders to: sales@telescope-service.com