Orion StarShoot Pro V2.0 Deep Space Color CCD Camera with Sony SuperHAD CCD Color Imaging Sensor, 25.10mm by 17.64, 7.8x7.8 Pixel Size

The Orion StarShoot Pro Deep Space Color CCD Camera features a big 1.8" format (23.4mm x 15.6mm) Sony 6.1-megapixel color CCD chip with a 3032 x 2016 pixel array. That gives the Pro more than 6.5 times the light collecting area and over four times as many pixels as similarly priced astronomical CCD cameras. The Pro's 7.8µ x 7.8µ pixel size provides an excellent balance between high resolution and sensitivity. You'll get beautiful, detail-rich shots with enough resolution to make large-format color prints suitable for framing.

Like all StarShoot cameras, the Pro is thermoelectrically cooled (TEC) to dramatically reduce thermal noise in your images. There's even a small fan on the rear housing to enhance cooling efficiency even more. Compare that to the competition's similarly priced imager, which has neither TEC nor a fan. The Pro renders full 16-bit dynamic range -- better than most DSLRs, which offer only 10- to 14-bit A/D conversion. Also unlike DSLRs, the Pro has no mechanical shutter or mirror to cause vibration problems and eventually wear out.

The StarShoot Pro incorporates many other desirable features, including a 2x2 binning option, subframe downloading, internal IR-cut filter, exposure range from 0.002 seconds to 9.3 hours and high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity for speedy image downloading. Power to the camera, TEC and fan is supplied by a single 12-volt DC cigarette-lighter plug on a 10' cable, which you connect to your 12-volt field battery. No other batteries are needed. Also included is a custom hard carrying case. Just because the StarShoot Pro is advanced doesn't mean it's complicated.

It is just as user friendly as the lower-resolution StarShoot color cameras. It comes with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition software, which provides real-time focusing assistance, easy image capture and powerful image combining and processing tools. But the easy-to-use Pro, with its huge increase in pixel count and chip size, will give intermediate and advanced users truly formidable imaging capability and beginning astrophotographers a high-quality camera that they won't soon outgrow.