Sky and Telescope - April 2017 - 58

S&T Test Report by Johnny Horne

The ASI 1600MC Cooled Camera
This 16-megapixel camera is as effective shooting the Moon and planets
as it is deep-sky targets, and at a price that's tough to beat.

ASI 1600MC-Cool
U.S. Price: $999
Astronomy-imaging-camera.com

What We Like:
Affordable and versatile
Very low-noise images

What We Don't Like:
Poor documentation
Cooler power supply
not included

A P R I L 2 0 1 7 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHERS today gener-

ally choose between two different types
of cameras, depending on the objects
they're interested in recording. The highest quality shots of the Sun, Moon, and
planets come from the "lucky imaging"
technique using high-speed digital video
cameras to capture short video clips that
are later processed into a ﬁnished still
image by stacking and sharpening the
highest-quality frames.
Deep-sky imagers in pursuit of the
faintest objects usually turn to cooled
CCD cameras that can capture long
exposures often tens of minutes in
duration. Like the lunar and planetary
shots, multiple frames are stacked to
improve the signal-to-noise ratio for
better pictures.
But the line separating these two
types of cameras is blurring. ZWOptical's ASI 1600MC-Cool camera is a
versatile, 16-megapixel, one-shot-color

camera that is as comfortable shooting
the Moon as it is the faintest nebulae.
Its Panasonic MN34230PLJ CMOS
detector features a generous array of
4,656 × 3,520, 3.8-micron pixels forming
an active imaging area measuring 17.6 ×
13.3 mm. A monochrome version of the
camera is also available for $1,280.
Housed in a compact, red-anodized
cylinder, the camera has male T-threads
(often called M42 threads) at the front
and jacks for a USB cable, a 12-VDC
power cable (that's only needed for
the cooler), and an industry-standard
autoguider port on the back end.
Surprisingly, no AC adapter or even a
power cord is supplied for the camera's
regulated two-stage cooler. I contacted
the manufacturer and was told that
the 12-VDC input plug on the camera
is center-positive and that the cooler
draws about 2 amps of power. Suitable
AC adapters are readily available online,
and I was able to use one that I already
had on hand.
The camera comes with 1¼- and
2-inch nosepieces as well as a short
extension tube that has female
T-threads on one end and slightly larger
female M48 threads on the other end.
This would come in handy for connecting the camera to telescopes and accessories that use M48 threads. The camera
is light, weighing just 14.5 ounces.
When the cooler is operating, a small
fan on the back circulates air through
the camera body and out through two
louvered vents on the side. Using the
supplied software, you can enable a
wide range of region-of-interest (ROI)
sub-ﬁelds on the chip. The camera's
tiny pixels produce high-resolution

A LL PHOTOS BY THE AU THOR

t The ASI 1600MC-Cool from ZWOptical is a
16-megapixel cooled CMOS camera capable
of operating in either high-speed video mode
or as a long-exposure, deep-sky camera.

http://www.Astronomy-imaging-camera.com

Sky and Telescope - April 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - April 2017