Keo Scientific

Keo Sentry Imagers

The Keo Sentry is the classic workhorse of allsky and narrow-field auroral and airglow studies, designed by Dr. Bob Eather based on his extensive field experience since the 1960s. Constant, incremental improvements since then, based in large part on valuable customer feedback, have resulted in an imager that is more sensitive, and has better spectral selectivity, than ever before. The KeoSynopticx automatic ephemerides-driven field-operation software (see below) provides a truly turn-key solution.

In addition to its standard allsky (180 deg) field-of-view (FoV), field-replacable FoV modules of 8, 19, 46, and 76 degrees are available off the shelf, ideal for cross-scale studies. Custom FoVs are available as well.

The Sentry can be built to use either 3" or (for the very highest sensitivity) 4" diameter filters. Both single-filter drawer and filter-wheel based (6- and 8-slot wheels) units are available. The filter-wheel is carefully temperature stabilized with internal heating (and optional cooling) for optimum performance of narrow-band (from 1.8 nm FWHM) interference filters. Filters are image quality, hard-coated, and optimized for cone-angle. They are custom manufactured to Keo Scientific's own demanding specifications. Remarkably, Keo Scientific's optical design allows imaging at speeds of F0.95 (with its resulting steep cone angle) through such narrow-band filters. Also included is a high-reliability capping shutter and a bright-light protection sensor. The imager can be controlled by any computer equipped with a high-speed USB2 communications interface.

CCD Camera sensor head options include a range of Scientific Grade-1+ (hand-picked by the manufacturer for Keo Scientific Ltd.) back-illuminated EMCCDs and CCDs (13.3x 13.3 mm to 27.6 x 27.6 mm) with quantum efficiencies better than 95%, thermoelectric cooling to -80 degrees C and lifetime vacuum guarantee for maintenance free operation.

IR optimized versions of Sentry imagers are available.

All imagers are supported by Keo Scientific's 3-year warranty and our famous "go-that-extra-mile" lifetime prompt, free (and cheerful) support service.

A wide range of filters, both narrowband and wideband, suitable for auroral research is available. Some of our most popular models are 427.8, 470.9, 486.1, 557.7 and 630.0 nm. We order these in large quantities from the manufacturer and are able to pass them on to the research community at highly advantageous prices.

Absolute spectral and zonal calibration services are available.

The NORUSCA-II Imager

In November of 2009, Keo Scientific Ltd. teamed up with UNIS' Dr. Fred Signernes (Kjell Henriksen Observatory, Svalbard, Norway), Dr. Yuri Fedorenko and his team at the Russian Polar Geophysical Institute, as well as Dr. Yuriy Ivanov (Zemax guru extraordinaire, of Ukraine) on a research project called The Norwegian and Russian Upper Atmosphere Co-Operation on Svalbard Part 2 (NORUSCA II). This Norwegian-Russian collaboration is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

An important component of NORUSCA-II involved designing a compact but sensitive allsky imager suitable for auroral studies, a component Keo Scientific provided input to. More information on the resulting NORUSCA-II Imager is found here (or, direct link).

Keo Scientific Ltd. is pleased to offer for sale to the community a limited number of these imagers.

The imager accepts a 35 mm diameter interference filter (or a Liquid Crystal Tunable Filter) and is considered eminently suitable for panchromatic or filtered observations of aurora, twilight/dawn phenomena, stratospheric clouds, and meteor observations. Some optical specifications are listed below.

The imager comes complete with a P.I. Acton ProEM 512B EMCCD camera (8.2 mm x 8.2 mm CCD), filter(s) of your choice, and KeoSynopticx data acquisition software for a truly turn-key auroral imaging system.

To further underscore the close relationship between Keo Scientific Ltd. and The Kjell Henriksen Observatory/Svalbard, we are proud to mention that in 2010, Keo Scientific delivered a 4-inch imager to UNIS (instrument page at UNIS), now being operated by Dr. Sigernes and generating good data. 2010 also saw the delivery of a 3-inch imager to the Polar Research Institute of China, who are now operating it at the KHO (along with 4 identical imagers on their Zhong Shan base in Antarctica), as well as a 4-inch imager to the University of Oslo (operating out of Ny Aalesund, Svalbard).

NORUSCA-II Optical Specifications:

Paraxial focal length: 3.5 mm
FOV: 180 degrees
Linear FOV on CCD: 8.0 mm diameter circle
F-number: f/1.1
Spectral range: 430–750 nm
Resolution: 100 lp/mm center, 80 lp/mm (edge)
Lens mount: C-mount
Optics Dimensions: 320 mm length, 110 mm max diameter
MTF performance
Vignetting performance

The imager is supported by Keo Scientific's 3-year warranty and our famous lifetime prompt & free support service!

Keo Horizon Imagers

The Keo Horizon comes in two sizes: 1" optics and 2" optics. Their low cost and relatively high sensitivity makes the Keo Horizon line of imagers the ideal building block for ground-based imager arrays. Keo delivered twenty of the 1" variant to U. C. Berkeley for the ground-based observatories (GBO) component of the NASA THEMIS mission. The University of Calgary THEMIS Team, led by Dr. Eric Donovan, have deployed and are currently operating 16 of these imagers on Canadian soil. Four additional imagers are deployed in Alaska. Data are avilable via the Internet in realtime during local night. Keo Scientific delivered a color version of this imager to the Canadian Space Agency for their recently (2010) launched AuroraMAX project.

The low-cost 1-inch optics version comes with a compact all-sky (fisheye) lens and includes fast panchromatic F0.95 imaging through a hot mirror. Image capture takes place at high speed through a USB2 port. Sensor head options include StarlightXpress SXVF-M7 (b&w) and SXVF-M7 (color). Other options include bistable inline shutter and shutter controller unit with USB2 or RS232 interface.

A truly telecentric version of the 1-inch Horizon, useful for multispectral studies, is also available. To compensate for the loss of light through an interference filter (1-inch optics has marginal low-light-level throughput to begin with), the optics is four times as fast as that of the standard panchromatic issue described above. This version relies upon specially designed, custom-ground optical elements.

The higher-performing 2-inch version of this all-sky imager includes fast F0.95 imaging onto CCD through narrow- or wide-band 2-inch diameter interference filter(s). Image data is captured through a USB2 port. Sensor head options include the low-cost Atik 314L, or the StarlightXpress SXVR-H9 (monochrome) and SXVR-H9C (color), and, for superior performance at low cost, the P.I. Acton ProEM:512B EMCCD camera, for a peak QE at 540 nm of better than 95%. Configurations are available to include features such as custom narrow-field FoVs, Liquid Crystal Tunable Filter, filter-wheel and bistable inline shutter with shutter controller unit.

All imagers are supported by Keo Scientific's 3-year warranty and our famous "go-that-extra-mile" lifetime prompt, free (and cheerful) support service.

KeoSynopticx

Keo Synopticx provides an easy to use imager control interface for automated imaging operations. It enables the synchronization of filter selection, CCD/exposure settings and shutter operation through a Graphical User Interface.

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