Written on May 31, 2008 – 3:00 am | by Bogdan Alex |

Astronomy is one of my hobbies. In fact it’s astrophysics, to be more specific. Although it’s a hobby, I haven’t managed to get a good small-sized telescope yet. But it looks like there are better devices to suite my starry cravings. Straight from Imaging Source, we get a new range of affordable, low noise astronomy cameras.

Digital cameras are known to have problems in low light environments, but Imaging Source assures us their products use high quality filters. OK, you can’t really compare them to Hubble’s Deep Field, but each camera comes in exquisitely crafted, blue and black anodized aluminum and zinc industrial housing, weighing in at about 260 grams and measuring 50mm x 56mm.

The camera has a noise reduction piece included in the C/CS mount on the front of the camera, while the rear integrates a USB or FireWire connector, depending on the model. The product range has monochrome as well as color models, while not all of them will include a special IR cut filter. Depending on which model you choose, the standard resolutions are 640 x 480, 1,024 x 768 or 1,280 x 960. The latest low noise CCD chips from Sony are utilized with each of the Imaging Source models, offering an exposure time of up to an hour and a maximum frame rate of up to 60 fps.

Unfortunately, these cameras don't come that cheap, as the starter model costs $350 and the price rises up to $1200 for the top-of-the-line model.