ASI662MC color camera

Hello,

I just bought a ASI662MC new camera to replace my aging Atik 16IC guide camera. It’s amazing how quickly technology evolves. 13 years ago, when I bought my equipment, CCDs were all the rage and I purchased an Atik 11000 One Shot Color camera for imaging and an Atik 16IC for guiding. For planetary imaging I used a modified ToUcam 2. Looking at both cameras side by side is like looking at a 1930’s radio compared to a 21rst century set…

it is so much smaller, and uses a CMOS sensor instead of a CCD chip. This shows how far CMOS technology has progressed. It is shipped with a fish-eye lense, which I used to check the camera, and setup my software such as MaximDL, waiting for an actual cloudless moonless night to really test it.

This camera can also be used for planetary imaging and I can’t wait to train it on Jupiter or Saturn. It is equiped with a Sony IMX662AAQR-C chip and the pixel size is a tiny 2.9×2.9 μM with a surface of 1920 by 1080 px, which should match the C14 primary 4M focal length quite nicely. Using the supplied USB3.0 cable, acquisition rate is about 76 images per second. The sensitivity of the sensor should allow me to freeze atmospheric turbulence (which is a problem at my observatory) to get really good high resolution images as well as flawless guiding on a star.

Can’t wait to try it out. But, it as to be mentionned that my British made Atik 16IC served me well through countless long hours of autoguiding. But it won’t be missed (I hope).