Atik GP Monochrome CCD Camera – ATK0119 Atik

Atik GP Monochrome CCD Camera

The Atik GP excels as both a planetary camera and as a guide camera. Its compact size and light weight make it a joy to use on telescopes large and small. The senor used is the fantastically sensitive 1.3 million pixel ICX445 EXview II CCD from Sony. The GP is capable of up to 30 frames per second and will download both 8bit data with the convenience of saving to standard avi file format, or 12-bit for full dynamic range as Tif and Fits format.  When used with the included GPAcquire software the camera is fully configurable with gain, region of interest, data format and a myriad of other settings enabling optimal planetary, solar and lunar imaging. Data can be save direct to disk or initially to memory to optimize frame rates with slightly slower hardware.

Slowing things down a little the advanced passive cooling allows images of 1 ms to several seconds to be collected, ideal for guiding. The camera is fully compatible with existing Atik software so can be used with the (included) Capture software as well as plug ins for Maxim DL, AstroArt, and more though the ASCOM camera interface. Controlled this way it behaves much the same as Atik’s bigger cameras and will allow binning and sub framing.  Guiding corrections are passed to the mount using an ASCOM interface. This presents many advantages over the older ST4 guide port method including ease of set up, logging, and precision of guide corrections. But it does require that the mount is ASCOM compatible (as most modern mounts are) and linked to the computer. Guiding older mounts may still be possible with an USB to ST4 converter box, ask your dealer.

The GP does not have the active cooling of the Atik Titan so its potential for deep sky imaging is more limited, but it can be used to image the brighter deep sky objects.