At just over 4 inches in diameter and a few inches thick (IMX585), the new miniCAM8 is a compact, high-resolution, high-performance, cooled imaging system capable of exceptional, high-quality deep space images as well as high-quality, high-resolution planetary images.

So often, compactness in astro-imaging is achieved at the expense of some other critical feature found in multi-component cooled systems, such as sensor quality or thermoelectric cooling, etc. Such is not the case with the new miniCAM8. Based on Sony’s IMX585 8 MP sensor, the miniCAM8 includes full TE cooling capable of reaching a delta of -45℃ from ambient along with a built-in 8-position filter wheel for complete LRGB and narrowband imaging.

High Near-Infrared Sensitivity

The IMX585 is a Sony Starvis II processor that enables high sensitivity and high dynamic range (HDR). It also improves sensitivity in the near-infrared range by approximately 1.7 times* compared to the IMX485. The new camera miniCAM8 has a maximum quantum efficiency of 60% in the near-infrared band and 92% in the visible wavelength band.

*This data is officially provided by Sony: https://www.sony-semicon.com/cn/news/2021/2021062901.html

BSI

One benefit of the back-illuminated CMOS structure is improved full-well capacity. This is particularly helpful for sensors with small pixels. In a typical front-illuminated sensor, photons from the target entering the photosensitive layer of the sensor must first pass through the metal wiring that is embedded just above the photosensitive layer. The wiring structure reflects some of the photons and reduces the efficiency of the sensor.

In the back-illuminated sensor, the light is allowed to enter the photosensitive surface from the reverse side. In this case, the sensor’s embedded wiring structure is below the photosensitive layer. As a result, more incoming photons strike the photosensitive layer, and more electrons are generated and captured in the pixel well. This ratio of photon to electron production is called quantum efficiency. The higher the quantum efficiency, the more efficient the sensor is at converting photons to electrons, and hence the more sensitive the sensor is to capturing an image of something dim.

Zero Amplify Glow

miniCAM8 is also a zero amplifer glow camera.

Anti-Dew Technology

Based on almost 20-year cooled camera design experience, the QHY cooled camera has implemented the fully dew control solutions. The optic window has a built-in dew heater, and the chamber is protected from internal humidity condensation. An electric heating board for the chamber window can prevent the formation of dew, and the sensor itself is kept dry with our silicon gel tube socket design for control of humidity within the sensor chamber.

Cooling

In addition to dual-stage TE cooling, QHYCCD implements proprietary technology in hardware to control the dark current noise.

Variants

MiniCAM8M Deep Sky Combo - 

The astronomical filters included with the miniCAM8 deepsky combo are custom-designed to match the specific characteristics of the cameras. The size is 19 mm * 12 mm * 1.1 mm. The LRGB and SHO narrowband filters for the miniCAM8M deepsky combo are customized by XiMei Filters. The LRGB filters have an optical density (OD) value of 3, while the narrowband filters have an OD value of 5.

MiniCAM8M Planetary Combo - 

Includes: miniCAM8M x1; LRGB filter set x1; 20nm Methane filter x1; 40nm UV filter x1; 10nm Na filter x1

MiniCAM8M Photometric Combo - 

Includes: miniCAM8M x1; u’, g’, r’, i’, z’ sloan filter set x1

Adjust the brightness level of the Moon, Venus, and other bright objects with the Optolong Variable Polarizer. A standard Moon Filter is similar to a pair of sunglasses. They work fine, but sometimes the scene is too dark or too bright, and there’s not a lot you can do about it. A variable polarizing filter is much more flexible than a Moon filter. It allows you to set the percentage of attenuation by turning the top section of the two-piece filter. Simply attach the 2" threaded filter to a like-sized eyepiece or Astro accessory barrel, and then slowly rotate the top half of the filter—it turns 360°—to achieve the results you desire.

The Optolong Variable Polarizing Filter also works great to cut brightness when you are using your telescope for terrestrial observations or photography. If you have ever done photography through a SLR or DSLR camera, you may have already been introduced to the qualities of a polarizing filter, since it is a very popular accessory for polarizing the light and making the sky appear bluer. You will especially appreciate a polarizing filter when viewing over water or photographing a scene that includes a river or body of water. Simply turn the filter until you achieve the most glare-free results—you will really see the difference.

Optolong L-Pro 1.25 inch is multi-bandpass filter which offers better color balance by maximizing the transmission band. The balanced transmission allows astrophotos to be taken with minimal color cast to broadband emission objects such as galaxies, reflection nebulae and globular star clusters.

Warning - Do not use this filter for solar purposes !

Optolong L-Pro (L-Professional) filter is designed to improve the visibility of various deepsky objects. By selectively reducing the transmission of wavelengths of light pollutants, specifically those produced by artificial lightings including mercury vapor lamps, both high & low pressure sodium vapor lights and the unwanted natural light caused by neutral oxygen emission in our atmosphere (i.e. skyglow). Together with the highly transparent in main nebula emission lines at OIII(496nm and 500nm), H-beta (486nm), NII(654nm and 658nm), H-alpha(656nm) as well as SII(672nm), the filter is suitable for enhancing the contrast and details for both visual and photograghic purpose at sub-rural area with heavy light pollution.

Optolong L-Pro is multi-bandpass filter which offers better color balance by maximizing the transmission band. The balanced transmission allows astrophotos to be taken with minimal color cast to broadband emission objects such as galaxies, reflection nebulae and globular star clusters. L-Pro is the best choice for light pollution suppression.

• Optical glass fine material
• Spectrum: 380-750nm
• Surface Quality: 60/40 (Refer to MIL-O-13830)
• Fine-optically polished to ensure accurate 1/4 wavefront and < 30 seconds parallelism over the both surfaces
• High transmission at major nebula emission lines (i.e. H-alpha 656nm, OIII 496nm&500nm, SII 672nm and H-beta 486nm).
• Precision off-band blocking, specifically the major emission lines of artificial light pollution (i.e. Na 589nm, Hg 435nm and 578nm).

L-eNhance filter
The relentless spread of urbanization and its associated light pollution have become a growing problem for all amateur astrophotographers. The current solutions to the problem can be expensive and might include the purchase of a monochrome camera, several types of narrowband filters, and a filter wheel.

Optolong L-eNhance filter provides an economical and practical solution for amateurs. It is a dual-band pass filter that has been designed for DSLR (digital SLR), color CMOS, and monochrome CCD cameras. The convenience and cost-effectiveness of this filter allow amateurs to image a rich selection of astronomical images, even in bright, heavily light-polluted areas. Optolong believes the design of our L-eNhance filter is a technical innovation among filters. It effectively isolates the H-Alpha, H-Beta, and Oxygen III nebula emission lines and achieves a maximum transmission of up to 90%. The performance of this filter delivers images that superbly control the impact of light-polluted skies.

Hydrogen is the largest, the most primitive, the simplest, and the oldest element in the universe. Scientists consider that Hydrogen amounts to more than 90% of visible substances in space. Our sun is 5 billion years old, but so far hydrogen is still the key matter of nuclear fusion. While the sulfur element does not have much scientific significance, keeping H and O is meaningful for the exploration of life.
Therefore, we highlight H-a, H-b, O3, and O2, and reduce the signal of sulfur.

2. Spectrum and Characteristic
Substrate: B270
Thickness: 1.85mm
Tpeak: T>90%
Blocking range: 300-1000nm
Blocking depth: light pollution line blocking >99%
Surface quality: 60/40
Transmitted Wavefront RMS: λ/4
Parallelism: 30s

How to read the chart?

▲The horizontal axis is the Wavelength in Nanometers(nm).

▲The vertical axis is transmission in %.

▲The WHITE line shows the transmission of the filter. The artificial emission lines are shown in Yellow. The emission lines from the constellation are shown in GREEN, BLUE, AND RED.

SKU: 13801

Antlia LRGB-V Pro 系列滤镜专为使用 CCD 和 CMOS 传感器的单色相机而设计。适用的传感器包括 KAF/KAI 传感器、Sony IMX 传感器、GSENSE 和其他传感器制造商。LRGB-V Pro 套件旨在大致均衡来自红色敏感 CCD 探测器通量的 RGB 响应。结果是，您可以实现 1:1:1 均衡的 RGB 曝光，同时具有简化的后期处理和缩短的成像时间的优势。新的 LRGB-V Pro 系列滤镜在绿色和红色通道之间具有精心设计的光谱间隙，以最大限度地减少光污染的影响并提供有用频率的高透射率。滤镜的设计最大限度地捕捉了较暗星系和星云发射的细节。LRGB-V Pro 系列滤镜保证 B 和 G 滤镜中 OIII 波段的高透射率（蓝色和绿色的 OIII 信号 >95%）。B 通道的带宽变窄是为了改善由于 B 通道过度曝光而导致的恒星周围的蓝色通道溢出（光晕）。 Antlia LRGB-V Pro 系列滤光片通过 G 和 R 滤光片之间的宽间隙设计阻挡了 589nm 左右的发射线，从而抑制了高压钠灯和汞路灯的光污染，并实现了更自然的色彩平衡。基板厚度的均匀性使所有 Antlia 滤光片都具有良好的共焦性能。

LRGB-V Pro系列套装的亮点

1. 优质镀膜技术和精细抛光的基片 我们优化了质量选择流程，以确保高度均匀的玻璃基片。我们采用先进的光学镀膜技术和双面精密抛光，使所有滤镜均具有一致的共焦和光学性能。 2. 三个 RGB 通道中的每一个通道都实现了最大化的色彩平衡和对比度以及出色的 S/N 性能 玻璃基板的两侧沉积了数十层涂层，使 LRGB-V Pro 滤镜能够实现高 SNR。防反射涂层和精心设计的光谱间隙可最大限度地减少不必要的光散射，并最大限度地提高每个滤镜通道的有用信号数据。

3. 更紧密的星体轮廓和减少光晕 LRGB-V Pro系列套装的截止率经过高级设计，可最大限度地减少明亮星体周围的光晕并减少星体膨胀。我们精心设计的蓝色通道传输特性针对的是蓝色星体膨胀问题。

用途与性能：

1. 专为单色CCD和CMOS相机设计

2. 天体、星系、星团和星云的出色成像色彩

3. AR增透膜设计，减少二次反射和星晕

4. R-Filter 提供最大程度的 H-alpha 和 S II 发射传输

5. B/G 重叠使 OIII 线的能量加倍

6. 平衡的 RGB 设计为大多数望远镜光学系统提供 1:1:1 的曝光时间

7. 所有 Antlia LRGB-V Pro 滤镜的边缘均经过涂黑处理，以消除杂散光的内部反射

8. 四个 LRGB 滤光片的基板厚度均保持严格的公差

9. 不推荐用于太阳观测和成像

10. 不建议目视观察

重要提示：使用任何共焦滤光片时，用户在长时间成像过程中仍可能会遇到滤光片之间的焦点偏移。重要的是要记住，由于望远镜筒和玻璃光学元件之间的差异收缩，温度变化会改变光路的长度。建议摄影师每 1 到 2 小时手动或自动在软件中检查一次焦点。如果将望远镜从温暖的环境带到室外，则需要更频繁地检查焦点，直到设备稳定在接近环境温度为止。

技术规格：

基础基材：光学基材

滤光片厚度：1.25'' 为 2mm+/-0.05mm

表面质量：S/D（划痕/凹陷）= 60/40（参考 MIL-O-13830）

透射波前：Lambda/4 或更好。

平行度：小于 30 角秒

单面/无胶基材

L-eXtreme is a two 7nm bandpass filter which can be used with one-shot color cameras like DSLR's (digital SLR), and monochrome CCD cameras, it is also more suited for fast systems. The convenience and cost effectiveness of this filter allows amateurs to image a rich emission nebulas, even in bright, light pollution skies. Optolong believes the design of L-eXtreme filter would be better choice for fast systems in competitive price. It isolates the H-Alpha, and Oxygen III nebula emission lines so that the contrast and signal-to-noise ratio between nebulae were maximized. For people who is living in very light polluted areas, or when the moon is out, the L-eXtreme will be a good filter.

Unlike the Optolong L-eNhance filter which is a tri-band (transmits Hb, Ha, and OIII), the L-eXtreme filter is dual band that passes Ha and OIII emission lines.The advantage of the L-eXtreme filter is that there is no transmission between the H-beta and OIII lines, as there is no nebula emission lines there. In this case, it isn't letting light pollution come through so that maximize nebulas signal and make the sky background darker while imaging. The L-eXtreme filter should better isolate the emission lines only and better protect from light pollution.

Hydrogen is the largest, the most primitive, the simplest, and the oldest element in the universe. Scientists consider that Hydrogen amounts to more than 90% of visible substance in space. Our sun is 5 billion years old, but so far hydrogen is still the key matter of nuclear fusion. While the sulfur element does not have much scientific significance, so keeping H and O is meaning for exploration of life.
Therefore, we highlight H-a, H-b, O3 and O2, and reduce the signal of sulfur.

Spectrum and Characteristics

• Sbustrate: B270
• Thickness: 1.85mm
• Tpeak: T>90%
• Blocking range: 300-1000nm
• Blcoking depth: light pollution line blocking >99%
• Surface quality: 60/40
• Transmitted Wavefront RMS: λ/4

Antlia 3nm Pro 超窄带 1.25 英寸滤光片组包括以下物品：

• Antlia 1.25 英寸 H-Alpha 3nm 滤镜
• Antlia 1.25 英寸 OIII 3nm 滤镜
• Antlia 1.25 英寸 SII 3nm 滤镜

Antlia SHO Pro 窄带滤光片将 FWHM（半峰全宽）优化至 3nm 带通。随着带宽变窄，3nm Pro 窄带滤光片通过降低不需要的背景信号来增强发射目标的对比度。Antlia SHO 3nm Pro 滤光片旨在在 671.6nm 线上提供 88% 的透射率，为您提供最大信号和清晰的星云结构。

传统的较宽窄带滤光片由于强烈的（中心波长 (CWL) 偏移）会导致严重的传输损失。我们保证在中心带宽 1nm 范围内 T>88%，这意味着 3nm Pro 窄带滤光片可以保证高透射率，适用于长焦比和快速光学系统。蓝移数据显示，Antlia 3nm Pro 滤光片几乎可以与所有速度高达 f/3 的系统一起使用，发射信号损失最小，并满足 Hyperstar 和 RASA 等快速光学器件的要求。

带外阻断规格为 OD5（0.001%），可提供出色的 SNR（信噪比）和有效截止率，以最大限度地减少来自其他波长的干扰。改进的锐利截止天文摄影 3nm Pro 滤镜旨在最大限度地减少明亮恒星周围的光晕。

用途与性能：

• 高透射率和最小带宽可最大程度地提高对比度
• 陡峭的光谱轮廓最大程度地减少了明亮恒星周围的光晕
• 单一基板可消除内部反射
• 窄带物体：发射星云、行星、沃尔夫-拉叶星云和超新星遗迹
• 在光污染区域和黑暗场所使用
• 月亮升起时延长成像时间
• Antlia 窄带 Pro 滤波器可用于 F/3 系统，信号损失轻微
• 所有 Antlia 窄带滤光片的边缘均经过涂黑处理，以消除杂散光的内部反射
• 卓越的光学可靠性减少了后期图像处理

它是一种 3nm 双波段，旨在大幅减少光污染的影响，3nm 将星云的辐射隔离为 H-Alpha（红色）和 OIII（绿-蓝）。它可以阻挡光污染，最大化​​星云信号，并使天空背景变暗。它还可以阻挡汞蒸气灯、高压和低压钠蒸气灯的人造光以及由我们大气中的中性氧排放引起的不必要的自然光。最大化星云在 OIII（496nm 和 500nm）和 H-alpha（656nm）中的主要发射线的传输。但是，与 DSLR、彩色/MONO CMOS 和 CCD 一起使用时，此滤镜不适用于快速比率系统。

L-Ultimate的优点在于只通过发射线OIII(500.7nm)和Ha(656.3nm)，这样其他光污染发射线全部被排除，成像时只捕捉到星云的发射和反射信号，因此图像的天空背景更暗，最大程度提升了星云的对比度和信噪比。在重光污染区域，该产品还能选择性地过滤通过星云发射线的光污染和杂波信号，最终避免光污染对天文摄影的影响。

与双窄带 L-eNhance 和 L-eXtreme 系列不同的是，L-Ultimate 是一款双 3nm 带宽滤镜，只通过 Ha 和 OIII 发射线。您将获得更暗的天空背景，图像对比度更高，对星星的抑制也更强。L-Ultimate 在光晕性能方面也进行了优化，因此在对亮星物体进行拍摄时不会出现明显的光晕。

特征

The UHC (Ultra High Contrast) broadband filter is designed to improve the visibility of various deepsky objects. By selectively reducing the transmission of wavelengths of light pollutants, specifically those produced by artificial lightings including mercury vapor lamps, both high & low pressure sodium vapor lights and the unwanted natural light caused by neutral oxygen emission in our atmosphere (i.e. skyglow). Together with the highly transparent in main nebula emission lines at OIII(496nm and 500nm), H-beta (486nm), NII(654nm and 658nm), H-alpha(656nm) as well as SII(672nm), the filter is suitable for enhancing the contrast and details for both visual and photograghic purpose at sub-rural area with heavy light pollution.

Main Use and Performance

Suitable for color CCD cameras and unmodified DSLRs.

UHC with narrower passband provides higher contrast than CLS. Thus it is more suitable for urban environment where you suffer from severe light pollution.

UHC has a substantial red passband and offer superb views for objects like the Orion Nebula (M42).

Light pollution filter do not eliminate the effects of light pollution or increase the object’s brightness. In many cases, they increase the contrast between nebula and night sky, not brightening the nebula.

WARNING: The filters of Optolong are not designed for sun observation. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN WITH OPTOLONG FILTER. You would be BLIND if you fail to observe the warning.

(Only Compatible with QHY MiniCAM8 Camera)

Deep Sky Filter Set
Includes LRGB and narrowband SHO filters sized at 19 mm × 12 mm × 1.1 mm. The LRGB filters have an optical density (OD) of 3, while the narrowband filters have an OD of 5, providing high contrast and minimal light leakage for deep sky imaging.

Planetary Filter Set
Ideal for planetary observation, this set includes LRGB filters along with a 20nm Methane filter, 40nm UV filter, and 10nm Sodium (Na) filter. Great for capturing fine atmospheric and spectral details.

Photometric Filter Set
A complete Sloan filter set: u’, g’, r’, i’, z’. Suitable for scientific imaging and precise photometric measurements.

Ar III Standalone Filter
The Ar III (Argon III) filter is a narrowband filter centered around 713nm, designed to capture the specific emission line of triply ionized argon. This emission line is commonly observed in planetary nebulae, H II regions, emission-line galaxies, and in the spectroscopy of ionized gases in laboratory plasmas. 

Optolong LRGB filter set is designed for maximum contrast and with extremely high gradients for clear differentiation of colors. The LRGB filter set divides the spectrum into its components red, green, blue and luminance.

OIII emission overlaps on blue and green filters with maximum transmission to allow high efficiency and natural color imaging. Gap between green and red filters serves to block out the primary Sodium light pollution line at 589nm and improves color balance and separation.

• RGB, parfocal:1:1:1
• Creat images in their true original colors showing a wealth of natural detail;
• Steep bandpass filters to eliminate UV and IR interference;
• Include Luminance (UV/IR Cut), Red, Green, and Blue filters to reproduce the star's color