Equipped with the new high-sensitivity SONY IMX290 CMOS colour sensor, this camera delivers amazing image results with extremely short exposure times, even with simple telescope equipment. In addition, this modern camera can also be used as an autoguider.
An all-round camera that not only delivers super-sharp images of planets, but can also be used particularly well for capturing low-light deep-sky celestial objects such as planetary nebulae.
The secret to the high light sensitivity is SONY's new back-illuminated CMOS sensor. This increases the quantum efficiency to up to 77% at 533nm, which results in an extremely high luminous efficacy and thus, delivers particularly bright and high-contrast photos. In addition, the particularly low noise level of this new chip generation from SONY ensures exceptionally high brilliance and no cooling is required. The high native pixel resolution of 1936x1096, together with suitable telescopes, provides excellent overview images of the Moon, as well as detailed planetary images.
The ToupSky software included in the scope of delivery not only offers the necessary basic functions for image and video recording, but also many helpful special functions for image post-processing and for setting up the guider. Functions such as live image display, exposure settings, white balance, dark image noise reduction, stacking, time-lapse recordings and much more can be individually configured. The very sophisticated software makes it easy for you to get started in astrophotography. With the automatic settings, you can produce presentable results without much prior knowledge. If you want, simply switch off the automatic settings and gradually venture into the individual professional settings.
Connect the camera directly to the ST4 connector of your telescope mount and you have fully automatic tracking control. This makes long exposures of several minutes possible without the stars creating unwanted line marks due to the ever-present synchronisation fluctuations of a telescope mount. A corresponding ST-4 connection cable is also supplied with the camera. Due to the high light sensitivity of the camera, you will always find a suitable guide star even with very short exposure times.
The autoguider software is not included in the scope of delivery. You can use PHD Guiding, Guidedog, Metaguide, Guidemaster (freeware) or AstroArt, MaxIm DL (paid):
- PHD-Guiding: http://www.stark-labs.com/phdguiding.html
- GuideDog: http://barkosoftware.com/GuideDog/index.html
For connection, the camera has a 1.25" sleeve, 1.25" filter thread (M28.5x0.6) and C-mount thread (1 "x1/32").
