Cooled color CMOS camera for deep-sky photography
ASI cameras stand for a very good workmanship and have modern CMOS sensors installed. Now ZWO also makes these excellent cameras available for deep-sky photography. A powerful Peltier cooling ensures smooth shots without noise.
The camera is equipped with a high-resolution 8.5mm diameter CMOS sensor. The special feature of this sensor is the extremely high sensitivity with a QE of up to 80%. The IMX385LOR is one of the most sensitive sensors in its class.
The new SONY STARVIS and Exmor-R technology result in very low-noise images with very high sensitivity. The moderate pixel size of 3.75μm makes the camera very versatile, it can be used on telephoto lenses as well as on Newton telescopes and well-corrected refractors.
Application areas of the camera:
- DeepSky images (nebulae and galaxies): Due to the high sensitivity, nebulae and galaxies are visible after only a few seconds. The camera can be cooled to up to 45°C under ambient conditions. As a result, the already low noise is further reduced. By raising the GAIN (Comparable to the ISO setting for digital SLR cameras), you can reduce the exposure time to less than 30 seconds. Effects due to inaccuracies of the tracking are thus switched off.
- Lunar and planetary images: Extremely short exposure times due to high sensitivity. Due to the high resolution of the sensor many details can be reproduced even with a shorter telescope focal length. Video astronomy is also possible.
Cooled ZWO ASI cameras need a 12V power supply, If you don’t have one, please check the recommended accessories for a suitable power adapter.
Colour or mono? Black and white cameras have the advantage of higher sensitivity and resolution than colour cameras. However, more effort is required to obtain a colour image. You also need colour filters and a filter wheel
