C2 cameras with Global Shutter CMOS Sensors now available with GPS receiver

Main page▹Product Overview▹Astronomical cameras▹Articles	17.9.2024 \|

GPS satellite signal receivers provide not only location information, but also can be a source of very precise (sub-microsecond) timing information. Integration of the GPS receiver with an astronomical camera thus allows very precise timing of exposures. Now the GPS receiver module is available also for C2 cameras with global-shutter CMOS sensors, which are particularly suitable for application requiring precise exposure timing, like occultation observations etc.

C2-5000A global-shutter CMOS camera with installed GPS receivers

A huge advantage of the global-shutter CMOS sensors, compared to rolling-shutter ones, is very simple and straightforward way to determine the exact exposure time. As opposed to rolling-shutter sensors, all pixels are exposed at exactly the same time, returned by the GPS receiver, and there is no need to calculate with line time and pixel y-coordinate.

Illustration of the CMOS global shutter operation

On the other hand, the rolling-shutter CMOS sensors expose each line of pixels in different time, which makes determining of the each pixel exposure time slightly more complicated.

Illustration of the CMOS rolling shutter operation for individual exposures

Illustration of the CMOS rolling shutter operation for serial exposures

Refer to the C2 camera product page for more details.