The QHY16200A uses the ONSEMI 16.2MP KAF-16200 CCD. The APS-H format is suitable for most telescopes, including SCT's that cannot fully illuminate a 35mm frame without some vignetting or aberrations toward the field edge. It is also suitable for commonly available 2" filters. The larger sensor size provides nearly twice as many pixels as the popular KAF-8300. The QE is similar to or higher than 8300, and the 37ke- full well capacity is almost 50% greater than the 8300's 25.5ke-, yielding a dynamic range about 1.5X greater than the 8300.
The camera has a built-in filter wheel to carry either five or seven 2" mounted or 50mm unmounted filters. Although the sensor has an electronic shutter, this camera also has a mechanical shutter. This makes it possible to automatically take dark frames--unattended.
The effective image area is 27mm x 21.6mm. Compared to the QHY8L APS-C format of 23.4mm x 15.8mm, the APS-H sensor is significantly larger, with over 50% more image area. A good reason for desiring an APS-H size mono sensor is that there are no other existing mono sensors in size between the KAF8300 (4/3inch) and the KAI-11002 (35mm format).
The QHY16200A belongs to the QHYCCD "A" Series Camera family. "A" stands for "ALL-IN-ONE". The camera includes a built-in motor driven filter wheel and natively supports the QHYOAG while consuming a minimum of back focus--a precious commodoty for some optical systems! The filter wheels available for the QHY16200A accept 2" mounted filters in a 5-position carousel, or 50mm unmounted round filters in a 7-position carousel. This is the 50mm unmounted, 7-position carousel version.
This camera uses a mechanical shutter that has a butterfly shape. The shutter is directly driven by a motor with no other moving parts. The working life is almost unlimited. The shutter has two sides that block light and open spaces in between. The fan shape of the blades creates uniform illumination when opening, and uniform darkness when closing for dark frames. This feature is of great benefit when taking flat frames or making photometric measurements.
The 2-stage TE cooling reduces the temperature of the CCD chip to 45°C below ambient, resulting in very low dark current noise and a clean image even in long exposures.
The QHY16200A has a built-in hub that provides two extra USB host ports and two RS232 ports with 3-pin sockets. These can be used to connect the guide camera, focuser and mount. There is an external trigger in/out port for exposure timing or synchronizing the start of an exposure.
