ZWOptical now also offers a special autoguider camera in its popular ASI 174 series. The compact housing and low weight of this camera goes perfectly with any off-axis guider or guide scope. The high quantum efficiency (sensitivity) of the Sony IMX174 sensor, its relatively large size and infrared sensitivity make sure you can always find a guide star. Of course, the camera also has an ST-4 port.
The very sensitive monochrome camera is also very well suited to astrophotography - it is fast enough to enable planetary and lunar photography via Lucky Imaging (Stacking). The pixel size is small enough to mean that the resolution is sufficient for planets, but also large enough to make the camera interesting for deep sky photography of faint nebulae - a genuine all-rounder!
The CMOS sensor is so low noise that even in its small housing with no active cooling very good exposures are possible. Thanks to the short working distance (back focus), the camera can also be used in difficult focal positions - for example on Newtonian telescopes, which are not optimized for photography.
The advantages in a nutshell
- autoguider and astronomy camera - very versatile!
- large sensor with high sensitivity
- very light and compact
- many accessories included
- infrared sensitive
The camera comes equipped with a clear glass filter which is also transparent to infrared. This opens up exciting possibilities for planetary photography when combined with an infrared cutting filter. When used with a refracting telescope, however, the use of an infrared cutting filter makes sense, as the lens of the telescope has been optimized for imaging visible light and not the infra-red region.
