new_products_announce.htm

Announcement
New Products In Development
January 15, 2004

This announcement is to provide advance information about new products that we expect to release over the next few months. These are products under development and as such we do not have any further technical information, prices or specific release dates to give out other than what is posted in this announcement. When a product matures to the point that we can post more technical data, etc., we will update our web site. As always we appreciate your comments and suggestions for improving our product line.

ST-2000XMC
First Light with prototype
2 Megapixel Color CCD

NGC1977
20 min through 8" SCT
at F/7

We are experimenting with a color version of the ST-2000XM camera. Previous tests with other color CCDs were disappointing and failed to move us to produce a color camera for astronomy. We continue to believe that the best color images are produced with monochrome CCDs and color filter wheel. However, this 2 megapixel color camera shows great promise. The RGB filter curves are better than most for astronomical imaging and our first light images have us moving on to prototype testing. If we go forward with this model it could be available as early as March. Update 1/27/04: Click here to see a first sample from a beta tester of a pre-production model with self-guiding.

Equinox
SBIG Camera
Control Software
for Mac OS-X

This software is in beta testing and will be available for free for anyone who purchases an SBIG camera after January 1st. Send SBIG a copy of your invoice and camera serial number and we will send you a CD at no charge. In the mean time Mac users can download CCDOPS Lite for Mac from our web site for free. All others may purchase Equinox software for $49 directly from the author, Microprojects. Details will be posted in the near future. Equinox software includes a planetarium program and SBIG Camera control. This will control all SBIG cameras, including older parallel cameras with our E2P adapter. For Mac OS-X only. E2P for parallel cameras requires an Ethernet port on the computer.

New AO Accessory
for the Large Format
Research Series Cameras

The current AO-7 Adaptive Optics accessory only works with the various dual CCD versions of ST-7, ST-8, ST-9, ST-10 and ST-2000 cameras. It does not work with the large format cameras. This is not just an electronic compatibility matter. The 50mm diameter mirror of the AO-7 would be placed too far away from the CCD in the large format designs to be effective over the entire field of view. For these reasons, a new larger AO device is under development for the large format cameras. This new AO will not be as fast as the current AO-7 but it will be thinner and larger in diameter to cover up to a 35mm CCD. We anticipate the price to be approximately the same as the current AO-7. We expect the new AO will be available later this year.

Adapter Plate
for AO-7 and CFW8A

The AO-7 can be attached to the ST-7/8/9/10/2000 camera body directly or to the face of the CFW8A filter wheel. However when attached to the filter wheel a male-to-male thread adapter must be used to screw the hardware together. A more secure attachment is made when the AO-7 is coupled directly to the CFW8A with screws in the same way it can be attached to the camera body. This adapter plate makes direct attachment to the CFW8A possible. The plate is 0.31" (7.9mm) thick. It is available now for $79

DSS-7
Deep Space Spectrograph

A low cost compliment to our SGS Self-Guiding Spectrograph, this educational version will actually be more sensitive. It is designed to work best with the ST-7XME or ST-7XMEI. It will not be self-guiding, however. Nevertheless, it will be capable of detecting the red-shift of galaxies and measuring emission nebula and other extended objects. Our target price is under $1000

Linux
Development Tools: SBIG Universal Driver Library is available in Linux. Supports USB, Parallel and Ethernet. Sample Linux program.

CCDOPS version 5
Improvements and additions: Description and new Manual are now available.

More Announcements Coming
Stay Tuned: ST-237A replacement camera is in the works, Megapixel Fastar cameras later this year, Other goodies on the way.

Please keep in mind that this is an advance notice and the information can and probably will change as we work on these projects. As soon as we have firm release dates, technical specs and firm prices we will post the information on our web site.