Atik 16ic - £359

Without a doubt this is the best 16 bit cooled CCD camera available, in it's class, in the market today. A camera with image quality so good that in most cases dark frames are unnecessary. It's the perfect introduction to CCD imaging. My package includes: Camera with embedded T thread, 1.25" nosepiece, CD-ROM with drivers, capture software, User's manual (pdf) and plug ins for Astroart and MaxIm DL.There's also a quick start guide, 3m USB cable and 1.8m cigar plug lead. A 1250mA mains power supply and a 2m ST-4 autoguiding cable are available if required.

What you can achieve

Atik 16ic-s — Now Available! £553

After receiving feedback form numerous customers, Atik decided to introduce a new, bigger image sensor on the 16IC body. Many also reported that the 16IC was sweet, but a few more pixels wouldn't hurt, especially if they were a little bigger. The answer, the 16IC-S!

The 16IC-S features the Sony ICX415AL progressive scan image sensor with a resolution of 782x582 pixels and a pixel size of 8.3 x 8.3µm. Although not as sensitive in the Ha region as the ATK-16, the 16IC-S has lower noise and fewer hot pixels. With similar specifications as the 16IC, this new camera is another step in providing the astro imaging market with cameras capable of pleasing both the beginner and the advanced astrophotographer.

1250mA mains power supply and a 2m ST-4 autoguiding cable are available if required.

Atik 16 Series - End of line reductions - from £599

The Atik 16 line of cooled CCD cameras has been specifically designed with the amateur imager in mind. With a groundbreaking price-performance ratio, quality and ease of use, the new ATK-16 line brings advanced features within reach of everyone.

The idea behind the ATK-16 camera is to have an upgrade path to the ATK-1 and ATK-2 line of air cooled CCD cameras. Simplicity and ease of use are maintained, but there's a substantial increase performance wise.

A 16 Bit Analog to Digital Converter is now standard, meaning that over 65500 levels of greyscale are available, compared with the 256 levels on the Atk-1 and 2 line.

Peltier thermo-electric cooling is used, maintaining the CCD at 25°C below ambient temperature, which means that much lower thermal noise is generated on the CCD. Exposures of over 20 minutes are now possible, and the need of dark frames is greatly reduced. A very high quality BK7 optical window is used, with very high transmission coatings. Basically, the window "disappears" when looked at.

A few engineering improvements have been also made. For example, power requirements have been maintained to a minimum, with only 800mA of consumption, and 12V input has been used, eliminating the need of extra power supplies in the field. Also, a Magnetic Levitating fan is used, to minimize any residual vibration.

A guider port allows the camera to be used as an autoguider, and it's compatible with the ST4 type pinout.

Another interesting feature is the communications port. This port enables the camera to communicate with external peripherals, such as a motorized filter wheel, focuser, etc. Some of those accessories are already under development.

What you can achieve

Technical specifications

Select your camera

Artemis cameras

The Artemis larger format cameras are designed to offer big Kodak CCDs a a reasonable price. They provide a step up from the Sony ICX285 cameras such as the Atik 16HR to multi mega pixel deep sky imaging.

Kodak sensors were chosen for the new cameras as Kodak has a great reputation for providing CCDs for high end astronomy applications. The KAI11002 is an 11 million pixel device with an active area slightly greater than traditional 35mm film. The pixel size is 9um square; which is relatively large and a good match for a broad range of telescopes. The KAI4021 is a 4 million pixel device 16mm square with 7um pixels. This camera can make full use of 1.25 inch filters and does not need a an imaging system capable of covering the larger 35mm chip. Both have an electronic shutter which makes it easy to use them for imaging faint deep sky objects or large bright objects like the moon.

The new Artemis cameras are designed to be easy to use and offer good value for money.

Technical specifications

What you can achieve

Select the camera

QHY8 - £1399

QHY8 high resolution one shot colour camera.
APS-C size, 6.15 megapixel Sony Super Had CCD,
25.10mm x 17.64mm chip size with 7.8um x 7.8um size pixels, 3000 x 2000.
High Ha senstivity (QE=50%) allows use of Ha filters for imaging of nebulae.
Readout noise: 8 -12 e @ 600 Kpixel/s
QE: 60% at Green (Peak), 50% at Blue and Ha
Progressive Scan
ABG: -110dB
16bit ADC with CDS and Preamp
USB2.0 High Speed interface

Introductory price is £1399 delivered which includes camera, IR block window, power supply splitter box and cables to connect to cigar socket. A quick start guide, drivers and plug in for MaximDl are also included. Mains power supply unit (3.5A) is an optional extra.

What you can achieve