Player One Apollo-M MAX USB3.0 Mono Camera IMX432 (Apollo-M MAX)

Player One Apollo-M MAX USB3.0 Solar Mono Camera IMX432

Focus on Solar imaging!

Apollo series is the world’s first camera line designed specifically for solar photography, named after Apollo. The Apollo series features Sony sensors with global shutters and a focus on monochrome sensors.

Apollo-M MAX is a solar camera developed by Player One Astronomy, which adopts the Sony IMX432 1.1” format monochrome sensor. The 9um pixel size accommodates a well depth of 100ke with a total of 1.7MP  (the resolution is 1608*1104), and the diagonal is 17.5mm.

Pregius Technology

Apollo-M MAX (IMX432) is based on Pregius 3rd Generation. But IMX432 is quite different. According to the introduction of technical documents, pixel size of 3rd Gen usually is 4.5um, and full well is 25Ke. But this sensor has 9um pixel, and of course the full well up to 4x (100Ke).

Format

Apollo-M MAX (IMX432) has 1.1″ format, it is pretty big, almost twice of IMX174 chip.

Pixel size

9um pixel size is 1.5 times bigger than IMX174 camera, which means it can works at longer focal ratio, such as SCT + Daystar filter(with 4.2X) .

Full Well

100Ke full well, is 3 times bigger than IMX174. This feature will bring some new possibility in imaging. What we can imagine is HDR the Sun and prominence, or maybe the bright and dark side of the Moon.

HCG and Noise

HCG mode will automatically open when Gain >145, readout noise will drop to 4.6e. And dynamic range will rise to 12 drops again.

At 380 gain, readout noise of Apollo-M MAX (IMX432) camera is 2.6e, it is lower than IMX174. And full well will still bigger than IMX174.

Recommended accessories:

ACS (Active Cooling System)

ACS is a external air-cooled system, designed for solar and big format planetary cameras which already has PCS (Passive Cooling System). ACS can provide much better temperature control. When camera has PCS + ACS, temperature is only 7℃ higher than ambient, camera body is a little warm but won’t hot! ACS is not only can be used in daylight for solar imaging, it also could be used in night for DSO lucky imaging.