Is the 585C the same sensor as the ZWO ASI585MC and the Player One Uranus-C?

Yes: the Sony IMX585 Starvis 2 sensor, 3840 x 2160 pixels of 2.9 um, 8.3 megapixels.

What field of view does it give on a small refractor?

2.19 x 1.23 degrees at 292 mm: that is my plate solve on the Altair 60EDF with its 0.8x reducer.

How long were the exposures in my images?

Guided subs of three and five minutes on a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi: 12 x 5 minutes on the Horsehead, 18 x 5 on the Orion Nebula, 24 x 5 on the Rosette and 10 x 3 on Andromeda.

Should I buy the Altair 585C or the ZWO ASI585MC Air?

The 585C if you want the IMX585 with fan cooling at £359; the ASI585MC Air if you want TEC cooling, a built-in guide sensor and the controller in the camera, at £799.

Can I buy the 585C in the US?

Astroworld Telescopes in New York lists it; Altair Astro also ships from the UK at its international price.

What have I not tested on the Hypercam 585C?

I have not measured the 585C's sensor temperature, read noise or dark current, and I have no planetary capture of my own with it.

Altair Hypercam 585C review: fan-cooled IMX585 colour camera

Where does it rank on our leaderboard

Nine of the 29 cameras on my board, against price
Rank	Camera	Stars for Your Buck	Recorded UK price
1	SVBONY SV705C	93 out of 100	£229
2	SVBONY SC571CC	90 out of 100	£1,029
5	ToupTek SkyEye 24AC	85 out of 100	£1,804
6	Altair Hypercam 585C	84 out of 100	£359
14	Player One Apollo-M MAX	76 out of 100	£485
20	ASI 4400MC	72 out of 100	£3,299
26	QHY 585C	59 out of 100	£359
28	ZWO ASI183MC	38 out of 100	£549
29	Nikon COOLPIX P1000	32 out of 100	£787

Contents

01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
02 Specifications and features
03 In the hand
04 The rig on the mount
05 How good is it? Here is what it captured
06 Raw against finished
07 Watch the review
08 Tested numbers and the download
09 Should you buy it?
10 Questions and more about this review

In 30 seconds

Stars for Your Buck 84/100

Reviewed 11 Jul 2025 Updated 24 Sep 2026

Rank: #6 of 29 cameras
Verdict: Damon recommends

Written by Damon Scotting 5 min read

Buy it if

You want a small colour camera for a short refractor and a light tracking mount, with guided subs of three to five minutes.
You want some cooling without carrying a 12 V supply: the fan runs from the USB cable.
You want one camera for deep-sky targets and the planets on a modest budget.

Skip it if

You shoot dark frames at a regulated set point: this is fan cooling, not a TEC.
You want the lowest price for the IMX585: the SVBONY SV705C carries it for less, with no cooling.
You want a wide field: the 1/1.2 inch sensor covers 2.19 x 1.23 degrees at 292 mm.

“This is an Altair Astro 585, and what's really interesting about its design is that it actually implements a fan feature, but you don't need a separate power supply for it.”

Specifications and features

Against the cameras I have reviewed

Compare with

Altair Hypercam 585C reviewed #6 of 29	SVBONY SV705C #1 of 29	ZWO ASI585MC Air #3 of 29	Altair Hypercam 585MM #22 of 29
Recorded UK price	£359	£229	£799	£445
Stars for Your Buck	84/100	93/100	89/100	71/100
Sensor	Sony IMX585 Starvis 2 BSI CMOS	Sony IMX585, 1/1.2 inch	Sony IMX585, with an SC2210 mono guide sensor	Sony IMX585 Starvis 2 BSI CMOS
Format	1/1.2 inch, 11.2 x 6.26 mm, 12.85 mm diagonal	1/1.2 inch	1/1.2 inch, 11.2 x 6.3 mm	1/1.2 inch, 11.14 x 6.26 mm, 12.85 mm diagonal
Colour or mono	Colour	Colour	Colour	Mono
Resolution	3840 x 2160, 8.3 MP	3856 x 2180, 8.4 MP	3840 x 2160, 8.3 MP	3840 x 2160, 8.3 MP
Pixel size	2.9 um	2.9 um	2.9 um	2.9 um
Cooling	Fan and heatsink, powered by the USB cable; no TEC	Uncooled	Two-stage TEC, 30 to 35 C below ambient	Two-stage TEC, to 35 C below ambient
Read noise	0.42 to 2.43 e-	0.7 to 6.5 e-	0.7 to 6.67 e-	0.42 to 2.43 e-
Full well	40 ke-	38 ke-	40 ke-	40 ke-
ADC	12-bit (16-bit output in HDR mode)	12-bit	12-bit	12-bit
Weight	300 g	160 g	620 g	500 g
Back focus	17.5 mm	6.5 or 12.5 mm	12.5 or 17.5 mm	17.5 mm
Interface	USB 3.0, ST4 guide port	USB 3.0, ST4 guide port	Wi-Fi (2.4 and 5 GHz), USB Type-C, four USB 2.0, two DC 12 V sockets	USB 3.0, a two-port USB hub, 12 V DC for the cooler
In the box	The camera, a 1.5 m USB cable, a 2 inch nosepiece, a silicone dust cap and a software CD (a 1.25 inch nosepiece is optional)	The camera, a USB 3.0 cable, an ST4 guide cable, an M42 to CS adapter, a T2 adapter, a 1.25 inch T-adapter, a 2 inch dust cover, a manual and a cleaning cloth	The camera, a camera bag, the external antenna, a 1 m DC cable, a 1.5 m DC extension, two 0.5 m USB 2.0 cables, a 21 mm T2 extender, a 16.5 mm T2 to M48 extender, an M42 to M48 tilter, a 1 m hook-and-loop strap, a 2 mm hex wrench and a quick guide	The camera, a 1.5 m USB cable, a 12 V DC power adaptor, an armoured case with foam inserts, a silicone dust cap and a software CD

In the hand

On the 0.8x reducer

Fan, guide port, USB 3.0

On the Star Adventurer GTi

Under the Moon

Beside the 585M TEC

The complete rig

The rig on the mount

On the TeSeek 11, then on six other mounts

How good is it? Here is what it captured

Four targets

M 42 Orion Nebula, Altair Hypercam 585C

Integration: 1 h 30 min (18 x 300 s)
Field: 2.10 x 1.16 degrees
Telescope: Altair 60EDF with the 0.8x reducer
Camera: Altair Hypercam 585C
Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
Target: M 42 Orion Nebula
Type: Emission nebula
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula, Altair Hypercam 585C

Integration: 2 h (24 x 300 s)
Field: about 2.2 x 1.2 degrees
Telescope: Altair 60EDF with the 0.8x reducer
Camera: Altair Hypercam 585C
Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
Target: NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula
Type: Emission nebula
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

IC 434 Horsehead Nebula, Altair Hypercam 585C

Integration: 1 h (12 x 300 s)
Field: 2.19 x 1.23 degrees
Telescope: Altair 60EDF with the 0.8x reducer
Camera: Altair Hypercam 585C
Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
Target: IC 434 Horsehead Nebula
Type: Dark and emission nebula
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

M 31 Andromeda Galaxy, Altair Hypercam 585C

Integration: 30 min (10 x 180 s)
Field: 2.19 x 1.23 degrees
Telescope: Altair 60EDF with the 0.8x reducer
Camera: Altair Hypercam 585C
Mount: Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
Target: M 31 Andromeda Galaxy
Type: Spiral galaxy
Location: Bortle 6.8 (in my garden)

Raw against finished

Watch the review

The 4 targets, the raw combined stack against my finished image, each with its integration, the camera and the palette:

M 42 Orion Nebula: 1 h 30 min (18 x 300 s) of light, Altair Hypercam 585C, the raw combined stack with one automatic stretch
NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula: 2 h (24 x 300 s) of light, Altair Hypercam 585C, the raw combined stack with one automatic stretch
IC 434 Horsehead Nebula: 1 h (12 x 300 s) of light, Altair Hypercam 585C, the raw combined stack with one automatic stretch
M 31 Andromeda Galaxy: 30 min (10 x 180 s) of light, Altair Hypercam 585C, the raw combined stack with one automatic stretch

What YOU can SEE with a NEW £2000 Telescope setup?! · published 11 July 2025 · 9:20 · Watch on YouTube · 7,438 views, 458 likes on 2 Oct 2026

Jump to

4:22 The camera: the Altair Hypercam 585C
5:00 A fan with no separate power supply
5:21 The field of view, and the Pleiades
6:38 The Horsehead Nebula, 12 x 5 minutes
6:46 The Orion Nebula, 18 x 5 minutes
6:59 The Andromeda Galaxy, 10 x 3 minutes
7:07 The Rosette Nebula, 24 x 5 minutes
7:20 The Leo Triplet, 40 x 3 minutes
7:29 Markarian's Chain, a four-panel mosaic
8:18 Conclusion

Transcript of the review video 1,590 words · 8 chapters · searchable

Press a time stamp to play from there.

0:00 Intro

0:00 This is a complete astrophotography setup and it costs two thousand British pounds. 0:05 But how good are the images that you can capture with this rig? 0:09 Well in today's video we're gonna find out. 0:09 I'm Damon Scotting and this is Astronomical.

0:18 Who are Altair Astro?

0:18 So this right here is a complete astrophotography setup. 0:18 As far as I'm concerned this is the baseline for everything you need to take long exposure images of our night sky. 0:26 It includes a go-to tracking mount, your main telescope, a guide scope, a guiding camera, your main camera, and a couple of other accessories that enhance the quality of your images. 0:35 Now as we're all painfully aware, astrophotography is not a cheap hobby to get involved in, so it's really important to make sure that what you're purchasing is going to give you the results that you're hoping to achieve. 0:45 Which is why today's video is largely furnished by equipment from Altair Astro. 0:48 Altair Astro are a very well respected UK based company that ship internationally. 0:55 They are most well known for providing high quality and affordable astronomy gear and their customer service is unmatched. 0:58 I've been speaking with them a lot recently and you can tell how passionate they are about a hobby and that they will do anything they can to help. 1:05 In fact this video idea was largely developed by them as a way to help beginners get started with an affordable astrophotography setup. 1:11 Their website link and all of the products featured today are listed in a description below. 1:18 I strongly encourage you to have a look and check them out. 1:18 They've been around for ages but they don't invest tons in promotion and advertising choosing to let their work and the word of mouth speak for them instead. 1:27 But yeah the bottom line is I really like them and I'm more than happy to showcase their work in today's video. 1:32 This video will be the first in a new series of videos in which I explain what you can see with different budgets and different types of gear. 1:39 I've already started making a follow-up video to this titled what you can see with a three thousand pound telescope setup so make sure you're subscribed for all of these and if you really don't care too much about the gear and just want to see the the pictures I've captured with it, then I've included timestamps to all of the important moments in today's video. 1:54 Okay let's get started. 1:54 So here is our complete setup and you're probably wondering how I came to the conclusion that this is the rig to build for £2,000.

1:57 Total cost of equipment

2:02 Because let's face it that's not an easy decision to come to especially because there are so many different options now on the telescope market as to what equipment you should buy. 2:12 I'm going to start off by talking about the mount. 2:12 The mount was probably the easiest decision I had to make in this entire rig and that's because this is a Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTi tracking mount which is essentially a budget solution for low payload setups. 2:22 The essence of this video is to keep the cost down as low as possible which is why I've gone for this because it's capable but also cost-effective. 2:30 At £535 this mount is essentially one of the most affordable go-to tracking mounts on the market. 2:38 The Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTi is actually very easy to use and you can control it remotely with its own user-friendly app. 2:42 You can buy the mount head on its own but I went for the version with the tripod and pillar mount attachments. 2:49 Then moving on to the actual payload itself, the really important part of your telescope setup. 2:54 I'm going to start off by talking about the telescope which is an Altair 60EDF Refractor Telescope. 2:58 Now it is a very small telescope but it is what we like to refer to as a premium telescope. 3:04 The glass used within this telescope is FPL53 which is very high quality. 3:10 The aperture of the telescope is 60 millimetres and the focal ratio is f/6 which means your total focal length is 360 millimetres which is fairly wide allowing you to capture the majority of targets in our night sky. 3:21 But I've taken it one step further by introducing a 0.8x reducer at the back end of the telescope which actually reduces my focal length down to 288 millimetres and also my focal ratio down to f/4.8. 3:31 So f/4.8 means that this is a very fast telescope. 3:39 Now I'm hoping that if I properly align this telescope mount I'll be able to take some relatively long exposure images with this telescope, especially because it now has such a wide field of view. 3:50 But just to guarantee that I can take five, maybe even 10 minute long exposures, I'm going to also add a guide scope and guide camera. 3:58 Now I want to talk in particular about the Altair Astro new guide camera just here because it is very affordable and the specifications of this are incredibly interesting. 4:07 At £129 the Altair 462 Mark II offers 1080p resolution and 2.9 micrometres pixel size, which is very nice. 4:14 Pop this on top of your scope inside the Altair MG32 mini guide scope and you have yourself an excellent lightweight guiding setup.

4:22 The camera: the Altair Hypercam 585C

4:23 And then lastly the final component of this setup is the camera. 4:23 This is an Altair Astro 585 and what's really interesting about its design is that it actually implements a fan feature but you don't need a separate power supply for it. 4:33 It's priced at pretty much the same amount as all the other 585 sensors on the market. 4:38 This is the same camera sensor as the one used in the Player One Uranus-C camera and the ASI585. 4:43 These cameras have become two of the most popular astronomy cameras on the market and with good reason. 4:47 They are affordable and capable of capturing spectacular images not just of deep sky objects but also of the planets. 4:56 You can purchase their most expensive cooled variant models for a bit more but what's so What's so incredible about the Altair design is that it's the first camera to not need an additional power supply to cool itself down, you can operate the fan with just a data cable plugged in.

5:00 A fan with no separate power supply

5:11 And if that wasn't an incentive enough to choose the Altair 585C over the two most popular alternatives on the market, well then the fact that it is also priced at 10% cheaper than the others really sweetens the deal.

5:21 The field of view, and the Pleiades

5:22 When you combine the telescope, reducer and camera together you get almost the perfect field of view in terms of imaging the brightest deep sky objects in our night sky. 5:31 And as proof, this is how the Pleiades look through this setup, which is especially nice considering our total cost is £1,746.50. 5:39 So yeah that about covers the entire setup I'm going to be using today and I think the last thing I need to possibly mention is that I'm going to control all of this using my laptop. 5:49 I didn't think there was any reason to include this in the total cost of making a setup but I am mentioning it for full clarity. 5:54 The thing is basically everyone has their own laptop or computer and the software that you need in order to control this entire setup and capture images is actually completely free. 6:02 I'll attach some links in the description below for the software that you can use. 6:05 In fact, when the guide camera here arrived, on the cover of the box was actually a logo indicating that you can get a year's worth of SharpCap for free, purely because you've purchased this camera. 6:14 And if you don't want to use SharpCap, you can of course use Altair Astro's free software, Altair Capture. 6:19 And then if you want to go a little bit further and do an all-in-one setup, you can use a software such as N.I.N.A.. 6:24 Yeah, I'll attach links in the description below. 6:25 All right, enough talking. 6:26 Let's finally put this telescope rig to the test.

7:29 Markarian's Chain, a four-panel mosaic

7:29 For the final image I stitched together 4 images to make a 32 megapixel mosaic shot of the Markarian chain. 7:56 The field of view of this scope is quite large but you can always make your shots even bigger and higher resolution by stitching them together like this. 8:04 In doing so I have been able to include almost 50 more galaxies as well as one of the largest black holes known to man, M87. 8:17 My final thoughts, the conclusion of what I think of this setup is that it is in fact the baseline for a beginner astrophotography setup.

8:18 Conclusion

8:24 this is everything you are going to need. 8:26 It's the perfect foundation to then build upon. 8:29 I'm already planning on making a follow-up video to this titled, what you can see with a 3,000 pound telescope setup. 8:35 And it's gonna be a very similar rig to what this is right now. 8:38 But the main difference I'm going to implement is I'm gonna start using a monochrome camera and a set of filters, and then maybe add an autofocuser and a couple more little gizmos. 8:46 There is a fair bit of flexibility when you add an extra 1,000 pounds to your budget. 8:51 So if you're interested in seeing that video and more videos like this, make sure you are subscribed. 8:53 Thanks for watching, I'm Damon Scotting and this was Astronomical.

Check out more videos on the Altair Hypercam 585C

Seestar S30 pro V.S My $2000 Telescope rig - Image comparison

3 Jan 2026

Tested numbers and the download

Finished image

Licence: for personal use, credit Damon Scotting. Both JPEGs 3,836 x 2,156 px.

Unknown sensor temperature during imaging

292 mm focal length, plate solved stated 288 mm, with the 0.8x reducer on the Altair 60EDF

2.19 x 1.23° field of view 3,840 x 2,160 px on Hypercam 585C

8.3 MP Hypercam 585C 3,840 x 2,160 px, 11.2 x 6.26 mm

Should you buy it?

84/100 Stars for Your Buck

Pros

“This is the same camera sensor as the one used in the Player One Uranus camera and the ASI585.”
“When you combine the telescope, reducer and camera together you get almost the perfect field of view in terms of imaging the brightest deep sky objects in our night sky.”
The fan and heatsink run from the USB cable alone: no second power lead to the camera.
On a 60 mm refractor it gave me the Rosette in two hours and the Orion Nebula in 90 minutes, in guided five-minute subs.
8.3 megapixels of 2.9 um pixels, read noise from 2.43 down to 0.42 electrons, at 300 g.

Cons

Fan cooling only: there is no regulated sensor temperature to match dark frames to.
The SVBONY SV705C carries the same IMX585 for £229 against £359, without cooling.
The small sensor gives a small field: 2.19 x 1.23 degrees at 292 mm.
A 12-bit ADC, with 16-bit output only in HDR mode.

The IMX585 is one of the most popular astro camera sensors in history for good reason: it captures nice and bright images in 4K resolution.

Who the Hypercam 585C is for

First deep-sky camera on a small refractor

Buy

On a 60 mm refractor with a 0.8x reducer it frames the Orion Nebula, the Horsehead, the Rosette and Andromeda, in guided three- and five-minute subs.

Imager who wants deep sky and the planets from one camera

Buy

“They are affordable and capable of capturing spectacular images not just of deep sky objects but also of the planets.”

Altair lists 47 frames a second at the full 3840 x 2160 in 8-bit, fast enough for planetary video.

Travel or garden rig with as few cables as possible

Buy

The fan runs from the USB cable, so the camera needs one lead, not two.

Long-exposure imager who calibrates at a set point

Skip

My recommendation is the TEC-cooled ZWO ASI585MC Air, the same sensor held at a set temperature, £799 at First Light Optics.

Tightest budget

Skip

My recommendation is the SVBONY SV705C: the same IMX585 for £229, with no cooling at all.

Wide-field imager

Skip

An APS-C sensor has more than five times the area of this 1/1.2 inch sensor on the same telescope.

Three alternatives I have reviewed

Questions and more about this review

Reviewed by

Damon Scotting

The Telescope Man Verified

BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham

About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book

I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded

Seven questions, answered

Questions about the Altair Hypercam 585C

Reviewed 11 July 2025 ·Updated 24 September 2026

I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. How this site is funded

Does the Altair Hypercam 585C need a 12 V power supply? What's so incredible about the Altair design is that it's the first camera to not need an additional power supply to cool itself down: you can operate the fan with just a data cable plugged in. Altair lists fan cooling with a heatsink, powered by the USB cable, and the fan can be switched between fan and passive cooling in software. From my video review The specifications and the comparison table ↓
Is the 585C the same sensor as the ZWO ASI585MC and the Player One Uranus-C? Yes: the Sony IMX585 Starvis 2 sensor, 3840 x 2160 pixels of 2.9 um, 8.3 megapixels. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
What field of view does it give on a small refractor? 2.19 x 1.23 degrees at 292 mm: that is my plate solve on the Altair 60EDF with its 0.8x reducer. Tested numbers and the download ↓
How long were the exposures in my images? Guided subs of three and five minutes on a Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi: 12 x 5 minutes on the Horsehead, 18 x 5 on the Orion Nebula, 24 x 5 on the Rosette and 10 x 3 on Andromeda. What I captured ↓
Should I buy the Altair 585C or the ZWO ASI585MC Air? The 585C if you want the IMX585 with fan cooling at £359; the ASI585MC Air if you want TEC cooling, a built-in guide sensor and the controller in the camera, at £799. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
Can I buy the 585C in the US? Astroworld Telescopes in New York lists it; Altair Astro also ships from the UK at its international price. The verdict, the readers and the sellers ↓
What have I not tested on the Hypercam 585C? I have not measured the 585C's sensor temperature, read noise or dark current, and I have no planetary capture of my own with it.