New Altair Astro GPCAM Cameras shipping now - try astro imaging with ONE camera

 

The new Altair GPCAM cameras use the latest Aptina CMOS sensors - available in colour and mono versions!

 

The Altair GP-Camera range - a great choice for Planetary and Lunar imaging, and High Sensitivity Guiding, along with extended exposure capabilities of up to 800 seconds for those wanting to begin their journey into Deep Sky Astro Imaging.

The new Altair GPCAM cameras come in two flavours, GPCAM Colour and GPCAM Mono. Both cameras sport the latest Aptina CMOS sensors which give most similar CCDs a run for their money in terms of sensitivity, but at a fraction of the price.

They fit your telescope just like a standard 1.25" eyepiece - and are about the same size too! So if your eyepiece works in a certain position, you can swap your camera straight in - hassle free. What's more you can attach C-Mount lenses for all-sky viewing as well as standard 1.25" astro filters to image in whatever spectrum you prefer.

 

Here's what you get in the box (basic package):

A 1.5 metre ST4 autoguider cable, 2 metre USB cable, the camera of course, dustcap, and a 20mm x 1.25" extension barrel with a standard astro filter thread on the end. To keep things reasonable, we didn't include any software CD. We figured if you can see this page, you candownload the latest software & drivers here anyway. (We'll cover software later).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notable features are the ST4 port for autoguiding, the stepped barrel to increase focus range...

...and the adapters allowing you to attach pretty much anything you want, including the Altair GPCAM Wide angle meteor lens (coming soon)...  Of ourse you can fit a standard 1.25" format astro filter of your choice - such as an IR blocking filter...

 

 

 

Here's a solar image by Altair Partner Ian Knight taken with a Lunt 60mm Double-Stack solar telescope and Altair CPCAM Mono, captured with AltairCapture. Stacked in Registax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just in case you were wondering if a camera this small can take deepsky images, here's a stack of 11x 60 second exposures taken with the Altair GPCAM Mono version by R Glover with Altair 10" Newtonian, guided with a GPCAM Colour / Altair Miniguider combo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For software and drivers, check out the cameras.altairastro.com software download page. Here's what you can download there:

1) Altair Device Drivers - the first thing you need to install.

2) AltairCapture 3.7 - full control of the camera, stacking, darkframe subtration, noise reduction, live preview, save video or stills. 

3) SharpCap v2.6 - one of the most widely used imaging software packages available - completely free and packed with features. (Requires Altair Device Drivers)

4) PDH2 Autoguiding - the benchmark autoguiding software - completely free and opensource. Full Altair camera support had already been accepted in next major release, and in the meantime, we have a special fully compatible version of the latest PDH2 to download and use right now. (Requires Altair Device Drivers)

5) Altair SDK - want to include Altair cameras in your own software? Just let us know, and we'll get you the latest SDK.

 

So there you have it - a super versatile astro photography camera which you can use for just about any target you care to mention, at an unbelievable price. And guess what? This is just the beginning!