Introducing the Atik 16200

So, here it is. The news post you’ve all been waiting for. I’d like you to meet…

…the Atik 16200!

Now, we didn’t do a great job of keeping this camera a secret. Many of you may have already met various versions of it at astronomy shows around the world as it travelled with us from the UK to the USA, from Germany to France. But very soon it’ll be leaving our side and making it’s way into the hands of astrophotographers everywhere, and we think you’ll agree it’s been worth the wait.

The KAF-16200 sensor gives us an incredible 16.2 megapixels to play with. This makes it our highest resolution camera to date, and an exciting addition to our large format astrophotography range. A 35mm diagonal gives you a huge amount of real estate, but it’s not just the sensor size that’s exciting us about this model.

The pixels themselves are 6µm, which gives you a great balance of sensitivity and flexibility. When I think of large format cameras I automatically think of huge, sprawling astrophotos taken at shorter focal lengths encompassing half the night sky – and they’re fantastic. But at 6µm, this camera is also a great match for longer focal lengths, making it a versatile and practical addition to your equipment.

The Atik 16200 First Light

One of my favourite things about the 16200 is the size of the resulting images that means you can zoom in and see an incredible amount of extra detail. Click on the image below for a high resolution version, and try it – the detail in those star clouds, the colours of the stars peppered through those dust lanes!

Camera: Atik 16200
Telescope: Takahashi CCA-250
R: 12x 300s, G: 12x300s, B: 12x300s, 3hrs total exposure

That’s right, that picture is just an hours worth of data in each channel.

The Specifications

Full technical specifications for the camera are over on it’s product page. I particularly like the 9e- read noise for this kind of large format chip. And the cooling delta’s pretty nice, too.

We’re busy putting the final touches through production, with the first batch of cameras soon on the way. It’ll be popping up on our dealer websites over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out there for prices and more detailed shipping information. In the meantime, we’ll be hoping for a break in the weather here in Norwich to see if we can’t get some more pictures for us all to zoom about in.