Sky and Telescope - April 2016 - 59

The Trius-SX814C is a relatively small cylinder measuring 2¾ inches in diameter and 2 5/8 inches long, so
its size and weight (1 pound) shouldn't produce balance
issues in most imaging conﬁgurations. There's an external cooling fan that supplements the unit's regulated
thermoelectric cooling (TEC). Its CCD chamber is sealed
with a fused silica window and purged with argon to
prevent condensation from forming on the cooled chip.
One particularly nice feature of the Trius design is an
integrated 3-port USB 2.0 hub at the rear of the camera.
This helps reduce the number of cables connected to
your host computer. I took advantage of the hub to connect a Lodestar X2 autoguider and a ﬁ lter wheel so that
only a single USB 2.0 cable ran from the camera assembly to my laptop. The camera is powered by 12 volts DC
and includes a universal AC adapter. A "Y" coax power
cable feeds the camera and exterior cooling fan. The
camera can function as an auto guider and includes a
6-pin port to interface with your telescope mount.
Both cameras come with the control software SXV_
HCOL_USB, which provides all the necessary functions
of image acquisition, as well as post-processing functions such as calibration and stacking. While it functions
adequately, it is proprietary to the Trius and will not, for
example, open FITS images acquired with the camera
using other software. Starlight Xpress also recommends
Stark Labs Nebulosity 4 (stark-labs.com), and MaxIm DL
(cyanogen.com). I tried each during my testing though
preferred the latter two that I have more experience with.

Mini Filter Wheel and Lodestar X2
Whether you're a fan of monochrome or one-shot color
cameras, a good autoguider is an essential accessory
when shooting deep-sky targets, and the Lodestar X2
autoguider didn't disappoint.
Like the Trius, the Lodestar X2's highly sensitive
monochrome Sony ICX829 CCD detector produces
extremely low-noise images, which permitted me to
easily locate suitable guide stars with exposures of 2 seconds or less on all the instruments I paired it with. Like
the Trius, the guider doesn't have a shutter. Its 752 × 580
pixel array measures 6.47 × 4.81 mm.
The Lodestar X2 has a versatile, compact design that
can be used with most any guidescope or oﬀ-axis guider.
The camera's outside diameter is precisely 1¼ inches,
which ﬁts in any standard telescope focuser. Furthermore, the front aperture includes C-mount threads, permitting a rigid connection to the oﬀ-axis guider (OAG)
built into the Starlight Xpress Mini Filter Wheel that I
tested. While a ﬁ lter wheel isn't a necessary component
when paired with a color camera, it is useful for shooting with specialized ﬁ lters that block light pollution. The
ﬁlter wheel can also function as a mechanical shutter;
more on this in a moment.

The Trius includes an assortment of cables for use with the camera's
internal USB mini hub, and an autoguider cable for using the SX814C as a guide camera. A unique "Y" coax splitter powers both the
camera and its external cooling fan.

The Lodestar X2 C-mount threads are convenient for
attaching the guider to conventional camera lenses with
standard C-mount adapters, thus creating an eﬀective,
freestanding autoguider and imaging setup.
Power for the Lodestar X2 comes from its USB 2.0
connection to the host computer (or Trius hub), and an
RJ-12 cable is supplied to interface the guider with your
mount. One note of caution here: the pin-out arrangement for the guiding interface cable is wired opposite to
what has become the de facto standard on most telescope
mounts, so it's important to use the RJ-12 cable supplied
with the Lodestar. Other ST-4 compatible cables won't
work with Lodestar X2. This is a touch ironic since the
Lodestar cable is actually wired the same as the RJ-12
cables that have long been a standard in the telephone
industry - it is the ST-4 cables that are diﬀerent despite
their now wide acceptance in the telescope world.
A small LED on the rear of the Lodestar housing
lights up green when the guider is powered up and
brieﬂy blinks red when sending guiding corrections to
your telescope mount.
The back end of the Trius
includes a 6-pin RJ-12
autoguider port, a USB 2.0
port to connect the camera
to your laptop, and a 3-port
USB mini hub that allows
users to connect up to three
additional accessories,
including a ﬁlter wheel, an
autoguider camera, or the
company's Active Optics
guiding unit.

Sk yandTelescope.com April 2016

http://www.stark-labs.com http://www.cyanogen.com http://www.SkyandTelescope.com

Sky and Telescope - April 2016

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