Experience and recording with ToupTek APS-C camera with IMX571 Color ATR3CMOS26000KPA / ATR2600C

Dear Telescope Specialists, Dear Mr. Kloss

Last night I had a beautiful, but also challenging, first light with my new camera.

Flawless and incredibly fast delivery of my 60th birthday present. I was extremely pleased with how quickly it arrived, especially since I knew the Telescope Specialists are very busy at the moment. Thank you very much.

The camera arrived very well packaged. A very comprehensive range of really good quality, sturdy, and thick-walled mounts made it easy to mount the camera on my Starizona Nexus and my Newton D200 f4. The included USB stick made driver and software installation extremely easy...great.

I was hoping for a correspondingly large field of view from the large APS-C sensor, which I certainly did. Mounting it in daylight and testing it under SharpCap, I was very impressed.

I'd like to mention here that I only became a balconynaut in the summer of 2023 and have become hopelessly addicted to astronomy. It's a shame about the weather, which limits the number of observations and thus the learning of this art, oh well. But things are getting better little by little. But I'm still a beginner.

I wanted to capture the Rosette Nebula, which I succeeded in doing. I made some mistakes with the mount for a long time and spent ages fiddling around until my GoTo worked. Without Polaris, it's not that easy as a beginner. But I wasn't happy with the way the nebula was displayed. The Nexus is a bit overwhelmed with its large chip and gives me a thick vignette.

Then the mount crashed, and I'm controlling it from inside via laptop because it's too cold outside. After that, the guiding disappeared. And finally, I took the Nexus out again because I couldn't get the nebula to clear up. I'm working with SharpCap's live stacking, which gave me pleasing images the last few times. But not this time. After reconfiguring, refocusing, re-aligning, and setting up the security software (ASPA), I decided to try something easier and photographed the Orion Nebula. I wanted to be successful, and the Rosette Nebula was hidden behind my canopy. The attached image is as it came out of the stack. Nothing post-processed. Image editing is my worst skill anyway.

By now, the Orion Nebula had passed the meridian and disappeared behind the surrounding trees, but the Rosette Nebula was clear again. I zoomed in and could see it for a brief moment. Without Nexus, it was much clearer, but then everything disappeared behind thick haze. End of first light...

I already love this camera. Very low noise, fast transmission despite full resolution. The controls are unusual, as I can only change RGB while stacking, which requires the full SharpCap version. A good €18 a year. A stylish case and the great accessories from the telescope specialist...top. And all at a price that, depending on the US dollar exchange rate, is roughly equivalent to a direct import from China. 5 stars.

But as I said, I'm fairly new to the business. So far, I've been working with the QYI 183c, a good camera in my opinion, but with a much smaller chip. This one gives me the wider field of view I wanted. A real winner even without a reducer.

Thank you for the great transaction, I'd be happy to do it again. As I have done several times before.

Sincerely, Klaus Gräpel

Link to the ToupTek APS-C camera with IMX571 Color ATR3CMOS26000KPA / ATR2600C:

https://www.teleskop-spezialisten.de/shop/-Sonder-Angebote/Aktion-ToupTek-APS-C-Kamera-mit-IMX571-Color-neueste-Version-ATR3CMOS26000KPA-ATR2600C::5544.html