Sky & Telescope - July 2020 - 72

NEAF PRODUCT SHOWCASE

A Virtual Convention
North America's largest astronomy show goes online.

M

any North American amateur
astronomers look forward to
the annual deep dive into our
hobby that is the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF). Usually held in
Suffern, New York, during early April,
the event is the biggest astronomy
trade show in North America. Due to
the COVID-19 pandemic, this year's
event has been pushed back until
September 12-13, with the Northeast
Astro Imaging Conference (NEAIC)
following on September 13-14. But
on Saturday, April 4th, while most of
us were sheltering at home, event
organizers produced an excellent
Virtual NEAF experience online at
neafexpo.com, with more than eight
hours of streaming content. Presentations included Jani Radebaugh
describing the Dragonfly rotorcraft
mission to Saturn's moon Titan
(dragonﬂy.jhuapl.edu), Alex Young
discussing the latest from the Parker
Solar Probe (parkersolarprobe.
jhuapl.edu), and our own Senior Editor Kelly Beatty previewing several
upcoming solar eclipses.
Much of the virtual experience was
remarkably similar to attending the
talks and booths at NEAF in person,
without the added background din to
contend with. At the end of the day,
door prizes were awarded, with the
grand prize of an Explore Scientific
16-inch ES Dobsonian presented to
James Ventling.
Although the main event is delayed
until late summer, many vendors still
took the opportunity to introduce
new products. So, as we continue to
hunker down in our homes and wait
out the virus, here is a selection of the
latest gear to whet your appetite in
anticipation for the big show in
Suffern this September.
-SEAN WALKER

72

J U LY 2 0 2 0 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

Atik Cameras (atik-cameras.com) rolls
out two new camera models. The Atik ACIS
7.1 features a Sony IMX428 CMOS sensor
with 4.5-micron pixels in a 7.1-megapixelarray capable of 30 frames per second at
full resolution. The second instrument is
an addition to the QSI line of CCD cameras
(qsimaging.com).The QSI 6162 incorporates
the popular KAF-16200 CCD detector boasting a 16-megapixel array of 6-micron-square
pixels and is available with several options,
including a built-in off-axis guider. Prices
start at $8,110.

QHYCCD (qhyccd.com) launches its
QHY268C color CMOS APS-C-format
camera (starting at $2,099). The unit is
designed around a Sony Exmor 26megapixel, back-illuminated, color CMOS
detector with 3.76-micron-square pixels.
The camera includes two-stage thermoelectric cooling and QHY's proprietary
thermal noise reduction technology to
produce images free of amp glow. See
our review of the QHY600M model on
page 68.

Celestron (celestron.com)
announces its revolutionary
StarSense Explorer alt-azimuth
telescope series, featuring pushto pointing aided by a smartphone
and free StarSense Explorer app
that plate-solves the sky using
your device's camera. For more
details, see our April issue,
page 63.

Atik ACIS 7.1

QHYCCCD QHY268C

Celestron
StarSense Explorer

http://www.atik-cameras.com http://www.qsimaging.com http://www.neafexpo.com http://www.qhyccd.com http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu http://www.parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu http://www.jhuapl.edu http://www.celestron.com

Sky & Telescope - July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - July 2020