The Starfish imager from Fishcamp Engineering is generating lots of interest among astrophotographers for its abilities as a dedicated autoguider.

S&T: Dennis di Cicco

In the world of amateur astrophotography, new DSLR cameras and big CCD chips have captured most of the recent headlines. But at last month's RTMC Astronomy Expo in California, many sky shooters were taking special note of the Starfish Astro-Camera newly introduced by Fishcamp Engineering.

Built around a 1.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, the Starfish was born as an autoguider, but it also serves as a planetary imager (with frame rates up to 25 per second) and an entry-level deep-sky camera. Its compact size and dedicated guider port compatible with the de facto industry standard set by Santa Barbara Instrument Group's revolutionary, but long discontinued ST-4 autoguider, make the Starfish Astro-Camera a welcome addition to the market. The unit has too many features to explain here, but the company's website is filled with details. There's also information on several new advanced imagers that Fishcamp Engineering has in the works.

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