TS-Optics TS174C Color Astro Camera for Deep-Sky, Sun and Planets
The TS174C of the Apollo series is a powerful color astro camera with the modern SONY IMX174 sensor. The large field and the good resolution by 5.86 µm pixels make the camera a good all-rounder for moon, planets, but also deep sky.
The "single-shot" color camera offers more convenience compared to monochrome cameras. Not everyone wants to go through the laborious L-RGB process for beautiful colored nebula shots or planetary shots. Color cameras offer you the possibility to get beautiful images without changing filters.
Deep sky astrophotography:
The large sensor with 13.4 mm diagonal makes the camera well suited for photography of nebular objects, star clusters and galaxies. A corrector will not be necessary in most cases. The Sony sensor is very sensitive, so you can image faint objects well in just a few minutes. Due to the large 5.86 µm pixels the camera is well suited for different telescopes of f/4 and slower. Also the use on camera lenses is well possible.
Lunar and planetary photography:
We recommend an effective focal ratio around f/20 to f/30 to achieve good resolution. This can be achieved very well with good barlow lenses.
Solar photography:
The TS174 is very well suited for photographing the sun, both in white light and in H-alpha. Against the Newtonian rings in solar photography, sensor tilting helps, which the TS174 also offers.
Use as an autoguider:
At only 180 grams, the TS174 is a lightweight. It hardly loads the focuser. Of course, the camera offers the ST-4 autoguiding interface. A 2 meter autoguiding cable is also included.
Anti-reflective clear glass filter protects the sensor from dust
The clear glass filter prevents dust from getting to the sensor. It also lets UV and infrared through, so you can also do infrared photography with the camera. You have full control over what light hits the sensor with the right choice of contrast filters, nebula filters or UV/IR blocking filters.
DPS technology against hot and dead pixels
The DPS (Dead Pixel Suppression) analyzes dark frames and selects the abnormal pixels. In imaging, these unwanted pixels are overwritten and then no longer appear. The image becomes smoother. The technology works similarly to a dark frame.
Air cooling - reduces the sensor temperature
The sensor heats up during the exposures. The PCS dissipates the heat from the sensor via a heat conducting pad. The sensor temperature is thus reduced by up to 15 degrees Celsius compared to cameras without PCS.
Here you can find drivers, software, a manual for the camera and hints for solar photography:
♦ The native driver can be downloaded
from here.
♦ Very popular for planetary imaging are
SharpCap (free or paid) and
FireCapture (free).
♦ For control via ASCOM, please install the
ASCOM platform and then the
ASCOM driver .
♦ For control via DirectShow, please install the
DirectShow driver. You can then test the camera with
AMCAP.
♦ You can download the user instructions
from here.
♦ A guide to successful solar photography with "pre and post processing" can be found at this external link:
Solar photography
