ALPHEA  -  All Sky Camera
ALPHEA camera is our entry market camera, low cost, featuring high sensitivity camera using backside illuminated CMOS sensors.
The purpose of these systems is to carry out All or Full Sky surveillance of the night or day sky, and in a continuous fashion. It is possible to assess, in real time, the night sky quality, and to record fast phenomena (meteors and fireballs) or slower (satellites, rockets, noctilucent clouds, zodiacal light, aurora, airglow ....).

Thanks to its high sensitivity, this system can record a very good image quality of the night sky, while producing images of stars that will not be trailed by natural Earth rotation, no star tracking is required.
Here is a PDF file describing how our ALL-SKY camera can be used for (application fields) 
See HERE a real time view of some of our ALL SKY camera running worldwide. 
Ordering information :
Please contact us for information and pricing concerning this camera.    
ALPHEA 6ML image samples
IMPORTANT : PLEASE Click on the image to get full resolution image, all images presented hereafter are reduced to fit this page. All images have been recorded in a dark site in France, with some cities located 45 km appart.

ALL images are raw, no dark frame removed, outdoor temperature was +9°C
To keep the price as low as possible, this camera does not have dome heating system to prevent dew from developing, nor auto-iris, to get
such features please look at our OMEA camera web page.
Six cameras type are proposed to accomodate customer requirements
Name Sensor Fisheye circle
"Illuminated" pixels
Detector resolution Field of view Pixel Scale Daylight
imaging
Production
Status
ALPHEA 6ML Monochrome 4.5 Million pixels 3100 x 2100 pixels 180° x 130° 3.3 arcmin/pix Yes Discontinued
ALPHEA 6CL Color 4.5 Million pixels 3100 x 2100 pixels 180° x 130° 3.3 arcmin/pix Yes Yes
ALPHEA 6MW Monochrome 2.7 Million pixels 3100 x 2100 pixels 180° x 180° 5.4 arcmin/pix Yes Discontinued
ALPHEA 6CW Color 2.7 Million pixels 3100 x 2100 pixels 180° x 180° 5.4 arcmin/pix Yes Yes
ALPHEA 3MW Monochrome 5.5 Million pixels 3000 x 3000 pixels 180° x 180° 3.3 arcmin/pix No (saturation) Contact us
ALPHEA 3CW Color 5.5 Million pixels 3000 x 3000 pixels 180° x 180° 3.3 arcmin/pix No (saturation) Contact us
35 sec exposure  - click image to get full res. 
ALPHEA 6CL image samples
ALPHEA 6CW image samples
ALPHEA 6MW image samples
ALPHEA 3CW image samples (same pixels size as ALPHEA 6xL, offering 180x180° Field of view instead of 180x130°)

Parameter

Value

Field of view

180° x 180 ° or 180° x 130°
See images above to assess this performance

Camera resolution

ALPHEA 6xx - 3100 x 2100 (6 Mpixels)  2.4 x 2.4 µm pixel
ALPHEA 3xx - 3000 x 3000 (9 Mpixels)  2.4 x 2.4 µm pixel
All Backside illuminated CMOS sensor (BSI) Ultra low readout noise.
No mechanical shutter ALPHEA 6xx/3xx : rolling shutter

ADC resolution

ALPHEA 6xx : 14 bits         ALPHEA 3xx :12 bits

Video stream

(USB 2.0)  ALPHEA 6xx : 7 fps and ALPHEA 3xx :3 fps

AVI output or snap image mode

Exposure time

From 32µs to many hours of exposure (all sky mode, typically 30s to 60s)

Gain

Variable (from 1e- / ADU downto 0.05 e- / ADU)
Gamma Tunable +50 units to -50 units
Cooling Passive from camera body dissipation, no active cooling

Image download time

< 20 ms

Control software

ALCOR SYSTEM Windows AllSky software supplied at no additionnal costs, SDK on request

Operating system

Windows (Seven, 8, 10)  32 & 64bits

Linux (contact us, SDK available)

To PC interface

USB 2.0 / 20 m length cable, perfectly reliable operation. Ethernet link on request.

Top dome heater

Manual enable/disable operation from the user, some watts are injected to remove dew.

Power supply

PC powered, 24V and 0.1A
Filter wheel None
Daylight imaging ALPHEA 6xx/3xx Capable
Auto-iris
None, fixed F/1.6 lens
Day operation possible with ALPHA 6xx/3xx with lowest gain and exposure time (32µs)

Focus adjustement None, factory tuned

Other informations

Tight to bad weather condtions (rain/snow), anodized aluminium casing, acrylic dome, water tight connectors / IP67 protection

Weight

1.5 kg

Dimensions

125mm diameter, 120 mm height

Operating temperature range

from -40°C to +45°C
Due to larger pixel size, sensitivity is increased and daylight imaging is at best with this camera, even at lowest exposure time (i.e 32µs), some part of the image can saturate
ALPHEA 3CW image samples
Day image, with 320µs exposure time, full lens aperture (note that the minimum exposure is 32µs)
35 sec exposure - click image to get full res. 
45 sec exposure - click image to get full res. 
Day image, with 150µs exposure time, full lens aperture (note that the minimum exposure is 32µs)
Night image, light polluted place ! 30 sec exposure. 5.5 millions pixels circle image
Day image, with 320µs exposure time, full lens aperture (note that the minimum exposure is 32µs).
45 sec exposure   - click image to get full res.
Higher resolution cameras - ALPHEA 3xx (new product - Feb 2019)
Higher resolution cameras
Specifications :
click image to get full res.
  Click image to get full res.
Camera support can be supplied (picture below), so that to minimize time for installation. This is an optionnal feature. Please ask for it, if needed.
PRODUCT DOCUMENTATION
35 sec exposure - click image to get full res.  At SpaceObs, San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, facilities held by A.Maury. Milky way center is at zenith
See a time lapse here of the same night, from dusk to dawn (120Mo, XVID Codec)
Application fields of this camera are (in a nutshell) :

- Astronomy
   Cloud cover and transparency map, Robotic telescopes farms, no mobile parts.

Free Space Optics (FSO) communication
   Cloud cover and transparency map, Site survey, Network architecture design and balancing

- Atmospheric studies
   Atmospheric transparency, urban light pollution monitoring, northern lights, passive optical sensing. Network of AllSky camera

- Defense
   Realtime and passive optical detection for satellite re-entry, planes and drones. Network of camera to cover larger territory

- Solar Power
   Cloud cover, transparency map, site survey and power production forecasting.
Software
Either our custom made Alcor System software or
SDK can be provided so that any custom algorithm can be implemented by the end user.