Astrel AST8300B MONO CCD Camera with Filter Wheel - no PC necessary

Astrel Instruments AST8300-B-M-FW - MONO CCD Camera independent from a PC

Combine the advantages of a cooled CCD camera with the more flexible handling of a DSLR camera. The Astrel AST8300 combines the best of both worlds and furthermore convinces through very interesting product features.

Easy like a DSLR

Don´t need a PC to be operated, as a DSLR. Can be used via smartphone or the optional 5" touch display.

You have 8 GB internal memory for your valuable raw exposures (expandable to up to 64 GB).

Fast, high sensitive live-view for easy focusing

Few, easy and self-explanatory apps for comfortable operation

Powerful like a professional CCD camera

The proven Kodak KAF8300 MONO sensor is the heart of the camera.

Cooling down to -42 °C below ambient reduces noise.

Integrated 7-position filter wheel for D=27mm filters

Binning from 2x2 to 10x10 (for testing) is possible.

With the hand pump, you generate a low vacuum for avoiding efficiently frost and dew.

Smart like a PC

Autoguiding and telescope control by the camera

Planetarium program, post-processing and more included

Many apps provide more possibilities

WiFi, Gbit-Ethernet, 2x USB, I/O Ports

Optional keyboard and display enhance the stand-alone abilities

See more about the AST8300 on Youtube:

Look, how simple the using of the camera is and how good are the results.
Link to Youtube.

The advantages and features of the AST8300B cameras:

The KAF-8300 Sensor is a proven high-quality CCD chip used in many astro cameras. With a 22.5 mm digonal and 5.4 µm pixels, it is perfectly suited for astronomical telescopes. The field can still be fully corrected and illuminated by 2" correctors.

The sensor has an anti-blooming gate, so even bright stars stay round.

The sensor has extremly low noise. Only a few exposure sequences are already sufficient for achieving a good image.




The AST8300B offers an internal filter wheel for up to 7 unmounted filters with 27 mm diameter. We recommend ASTRONOMIK filters.

Choose a fitting selection, like L-RGB filters for conventional colour images or nebula filters for narrow band exposures. Of course, you can freely combine the filters.

Every filter position is approached with pinpoint accuracy and checked by optical sensors. Via the internal program, you can specify when wich filter is approached. Thus you can plan a complete exposure sequence with different filters and the camera will run through every step automatically.




Effective temperatur control with an accuracy of 0.1 °C allows for reproducible results. The dark frames match precisely.

The effective temperature of the sensor is always in view.




When in liveview mode, the camera is put in 10x5 binning. In opposite to the dark DSLR display, you can really SEE the object on the screen, allowing a quick and easy framing of the target. Even weak objects can be positioned exactly. With this, you can, for example, skilfully present several deep-sky objects.




Focus mode for easy, intuitive and above all exact focusing. A small area is shown highly magnified, the camera starts downloading this area as fast as 2-3 frames per second.

You can see LIVE how the star becomes smaller and sharper. If you have reached optimum sharpness, you can instantly start the exposure.




Start with imaging. Decide whether it should be a single image or a whole sequence. Via the program, you can set the exposure time, the number of imges or the binning mode - shown simply and clear.

The exposures are stored internally and are at your disposal for late image processing.




View the raw image on your monitor or the optional display. You can see directly whether everything worked out and can correct and take countermeasures.

All relevant exposure date are displayed and can be checked.




The camera also has an autoguider function, based on the popular Lin_guider Linux program. This software is compatible with cameras which feature an autoguiding port. Guiding is made by an off-axis guider or via a guiding scope.




The camera comes with planetarium software, based on KStars/Ekos and Cartes du Ciel. With this programs, you can control GoTo mounts and approach the object with pinpoint accuracy.

Usage:

The manufacturer offers a tutorial of subsequent videos on his YouTube channel.

A video as short intro for the camera can be found here.

If you prefer printable text, then the Documentations web page of the manufacturer will supply some manuals in PDF format, like "Getting Started" for Cameras Revision A and Cameras Revision B, but also "SW Tools User Guide", again for Cameras Revision A and Cameras Revision B.

Review AST8300B - Hanns Selig

"In November 2017 I purchased the AST8300B as my new working tool for deep sky astrophotography. I also ordered a set of 27 mm filters (RGB and narrowband) wich fit into the integrated filterwheel. One really good and unique thing is that the camera is equipped with an integrated mini PC with a complete Linux OS and of course a number of specific software tools for camera operation and filterwheel control.

After a short period of learning all the procedures it is really very easy to work with the camera and to produce outstanding image results. The CCD sensor is the well known KAF8300 sensor which delivers clean 16 bit images. Image noise is no problem with the standard workflow (bias, dark, flat) and corresponding processing. A very big advantage from my point of view is the complete stand alone solution. You really don´t need a Laptop for the camera operation. Even guiding is provided with a special guiding software tool (lin-guider) which is already installed. The live view and focus app allows a very comfortable way to find and focus objects. Another smart innovation ist the possibility to use your smartphone or tablet to do wireless camera control. You can also buy a seperate touchscreen for camera control.

Another innovation is the way to prevent dew inside the camera. The idea is to evacuate the camera to a certain level of vacuum This is done with a vacuum hand pump which is included in the package. This works perfect and you don´t need any heaters or drying granulate. And this concept is not only perfect in theory but also in reality - very easy, very effective.
In principle the camera is as easy to control as a modern DSLR. The main difference ist the much better sensor, the cooling, the wireless operation and all the additional features that are not provided by DSLRs and competing CCD cameras. If you take into account that an onboard PC is included, as well as a 7 filter filterwheel (the filters have to be paid additionally), you get a very attractive package for a good price.

I recommend the camera to anyone who has serious intentions in the area of astrophotography (especially deep sky) and who wants to use a very innovative product to get top level results in a very comfortable way.

Hanns Selig, Germany"

Here are two reviews in English language:

From Sky@Night magazine: skyatnightreview.pdf
From our customer Achim Armbruster: AstrelAST8300review.pdf

Safety informations: PDF Download