Astrolumina Alccd-QHY 224coolc - cooled CMOS Color Camera, USB3.0

Astrolumina Alccd-QHY 224c - very fast CMOS Color Camera with Cooling

The ALccd-QHY 224 belongs to a new series of cooled USB 3.0 cameras. With its sensor, it is an excellent camera for the solar, lunar, planetary and meteor photography, but with the cooling, it works also also a low-noise and highly sensitive camera for deep sky photography.

The integrated DDRII cache of ALccd-QHY cameras 174, 178, 224 and 290 has a memory size of 128MB and ensures that no image will be lost when downloading. It is also the prerequisite for even in low-performance PCs and USB2.0 to have no loss of picture or to download an image at all.

Sensor and shutter

In the ALccd-QHY 224, the built-in sensor works in "rolling shutter" mode. A new pixel technology allows highest sensitivity and quantum efficiency in the visible and infrared range of light. Sony promotes this sensor as the one having the highest sensitivity in the line of small Sony sensors. At high gain settings, the readout noise as low (<1e) that this results in high sensitivity values. Thus weakest light signals can be recorded which are only just above the backgrpund noise. This property is necessary, for example, for high resolution planetary imaging with low aperture ratios.

If you are looking for a very sensitive sensor for low-light applications, then you are absolutely aright with this model.

In an HD video stream you can reach up to 150 frames per second. However, this depends on the USB3.0 controller and how fast the data can be flushed (SSD).

The housing

The sensor chamber of the cooled ALccd-QHY cameras 174, 178,224 and 290 is sealed and is heated with a special heating. Thus, fogging is counteracted, particularly in application areas with high humidity.

The cameras are very compact, which takes effect especially for smaller, portable telescopes, but a small camera is also beneficial when used in special technical assemblies.

System requirements

The camera has an advanced electronics that makes a PC with USB 2.0 support necessary. The maximum performance can be reached only with a powerful USB 3.0 computer.

Included is the original recording software "EZCAP".

The operating software is Windows 7, 8 and 10 compatible and supported by 32- and 64-bit.

In addition, we recommend the ASCOM compatible software packages MSB AstroArt or MaxIm DL.

Note

The ALccd-QHY cameras 174, 178,224 and 290 cameras require an external power supply with 12V and min. 3A.

The power consumption is up to 27W (100% cooling) with minimum at 8W (cooling off).