Alin Iacobescu is an astrophotographer from Romania with 4 years of experience in astrophotography. He has previously tested ToupTek Astro products, including the HOPE D60 and AE676C, sharing his hands-on experiences and insights into the performance of astronomy equipment in real-world imaging conditions.
In this review, Alin continues to explore the capabilities of the ToupTek Astro AE676C astronomy camera, testing its performance in different astrophotography applications, from deep-sky imaging to high-speed lunar capture.
Click here to view the original review.
The following content is shared from the author’s perspective.
To evaluate the performance of the AE676C in deep-sky astrophotography, I selected the central region of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805), Melotte 15, as the imaging target. The images were captured from Romania under heavily light-polluted skies with a Bortle 8/9 rating.
My setup
- Location / sky: Romania, Bortle 8/9
- Main camera: ToupTek AE676C (HCG - Gain 101, offset 23)
- Telescope: Askar 71f
- Focal length: 490mm
- Pixel scale: 0.84" per pixel
- Mount: ZWO AM5N
- Filters used: Askar C1 (15nm) & Altair (6nm) - Ha & Oiii
- Software: NINA, PHD2, PixInsight
Acquisition
1.Night 1 (No Dither):
- Bias: 100x0.001s
- Darks: 50x180s @ 10C
- Flats: 30x3s
- Lights: 70x180s @ 10C
- Filter: 15nm Ha & 35nm Oiii
-
Guiding average total RMS: 0.7”
2.Night 2 (Dither):
- Bias: 100x0.001s
- Darks: 50x180s @ 10C
- Flats: 30x3s
- Lights: 70x180s @ 10C
- Filter: 6nm Ha & 6nm Oiii
- Guiding average total RMS: 0.6”
For this test, I chose Melotte 15, the central region of the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). The data was captured over two nights, with 3.5 hours of integration time each night using different Ha and Oiii narrowband filters (15nm and 6nm).
During the first night, I wanted to simulate the experience of someone new to astrophotography. I used a 15nm dual narrowband filter I bought when I started the hobby (3years ago), together with the Snapshot feature in NINA. The idea was to keep the setup as budget friendly as possible and see what results could be achieved. Nowadays, there are better filters on the market at around the similar price, but i used what I had.
The stacked image from the first night showed a noticeable amount of walking noise, which can be reduced by using dithering.
For the second night, I wanted to represent the newbie++ user (my current level). I switched to a 6 nm dual narrowband filter and used the Sequencer feature in NINA, which enabled dithering. This reflects someone upgrading to their second astrophotography camera and understanding that a good filter can easily cost as much as the camera itself in this case (for a B8 sky, those filters are the key to DSO astrophotography).
I configured dithering to occur every 3 frames with an offset of about 12 camera pixels (AE676C). This reduced the walking noise, although it did not remove it completely. Dithering every frame could potentially improve the result further, but ultimately the thermal temperature remains one of the biggest limiting factors.
On both nights, the sensor was cooled from around 35°C down to 10°C, with an ambient temperature of approximately 26°C, to reduce thermal noise. Even with cooling, thermal noise was still the dominant source of noise in the final images which is understandable due to the smaller pixel size which are inherentaly noiser than larger ones. The main takeaway is that this camera relies heavily on calibration frames to produce good quality images, especially dark and bias frames.
As expected, using narrower filters makes the thermal noise in each individual frame more noticeable because less light reaches the sensor. With less signal available, the noise becomes a larger part of the image. This makes it even more important to apply good noise reduction practices during acquisition, such as capturing calibration frames, cooling the sensor as much as possible, and using dithering.
A huge shoutout to Seti Astro @setiv2 for the PI Cosmic Clarity plugin which helped reduce walking noise!!!
I would expect it to perform even better during cooler seasons, when the sensor can be cooled to 0°C or lower, which generally requires an ambient temperature below 15°C. Under those conditions, thermal noise should be diminished and easier to manage.
Understanding those factors, I would use the AE676C as a DSO camera in the following instances:
- USB-C powered lightweight travel setups
- Colder seasons with better skies where I could take advantage of the extra pixel resolution (my main imaging rig - 1.58" per pixel vs AE676C & Askar 71f - 0.84" per pixel)
Overall, the AE676C can be used successfully as a deep sky camera considering its price, but it does have its limitations. As previously mentioned in my review, its main purpose was planetary camera with extra features.
Single 180s Sub - 15nm filter (left) vs 6nm filter (right)
Raw image - stack 70x180s Subs each - 15nm filter (left) vs 6nm filter (right)
Background removed - image stack 70x180s Subs each - 15nm filter (left) vs 6nm filter (right)
BXT - CosmicClarity - BXT - stack 70x180s Subs each - 15nm filter (left) vs 6nm filter (right)
Starless Nebula + Curves - stack 70x180s Subs each - 15nm filter (left) vs 6nm filter (right)
Final Processed Image - stack 70x180s Subs each - 15nm filter (left) vs 6nm filter (right)
The stacks from the 2 nights were edited exactly the same in PixInsight.
Sidenote:
After updating all the software (NINA, Ascom platform and ToupTek drives), the camera was detected without an issue. A small improvement that I would like to see is the camera bits being reported when changing between the different modes (LCG, HCG, HDR).
Below you have the NINA cooldown and warmup graphs to evaluate the behavior of the cooling. It can be observed that the cooler sharply turns on to 100% or off to 0% which might lead to temperature shocks/condensation during colder or more humid environments, this is strictly a speculation and it was not tested.
NINA interface and available camera options
Cooldown behavior
Warmup behavior
Lunar Camera - Test Setup (Final Test)
My setup
- Location / sky: Romania, Bortle 8/9
- Main camera: ToupTek AE676C (LCG - Gain 100)
- Telescope: Askar 71f
- Focal length: 490mm
- Pixel scale: 0.84" per pixel
- Mount: ZWO AM5N
- Filters used: No Filter - Full camera spectrum
- Software: SharpCap Pro, AutoStakkert!, PixInsight
Acquisition
- Capture Area: 3536x3536 (Full resolution)
- Colour Space: RAW8
- Read Mode: LCG
- Binning: 1x1
- Gain: 100
- Exposure: 7ms (a little too much, maybe 6 or 6.5ms would have been better)
- USB Speed: 2
- Sensor Temperature: 34.1°C
- Output Format: SER file (*.ser)
- FPS: 28
- Altitude: 25°
- Moon: 90%
For the final test of this camera review, I decided to use it for its intended purpose as a planetary camera. I chose the Moon as the target because it is an easy object to capture and one that appeals to both beginners and experienced astrophotographers.
In combination with a 500 mm focal length telescope, the ToupTek AE676C provides a full disc framing of the Moon while leaving enough room in the frame to accommodate any drifting or slight miscentering during capture.
I only had the Moon visible for around 15 minutes, but during that time I managed to capture two videos back to back, each consisting of 5,000 exposures. In theory, the total capture time should have been around 6 minutes, but in practice it took closer to 9 minutes.
The camera maintained a steady 28 FPS for the first 3,700 exposures or so for each 5,000 frame video captured. After that, the frame rate dropped as the buffer became full, with approximately 171 frames stored in the buffer under the settings used. I believe this was likely due to the SSD in my PC, a MiniX Z350 0dB equipped with a FORSEE XP1000F512G SSD.
For the remaining 1,300 or so frames, the capture rate averaged between 6 and 8 FPS, with approximately 330 dropped frames. This represents around a 20% reduction once the buffer became saturated, or roughly 6.5% of the total video.
I suspect this was an SSD limitation rather than a camera issue, as the camera was generating data faster than the SSD could sustain writing. Given the limited capture time I had for the moon, I did not think to increase the memory allocation in SharpCap, which would have allowed more frames to be temporarily stored in RAM before being written to the SSD. This is a lesson learned for future sessions, and I will make sure to allocate at least 4 GB of RAM instead of the default 1 GB for this purpose.
Overall, despite some dropped frames, the final video quality was not compromised. As a rough idea, each 5000 frames video at the specs mentioned is roughly 60GB.
After the acquisition, I stacked the best 20%, 10% and 5% out of the 10,000 frames in AutoStakkert! and then processed the result in PixInsight using BXT, NXT, and Color Calibration. With this relatively minimal processing effort, I was really pleased with the final result. I will be honest I did not find any differences between the 3 options so I kept the best 20%.
For this experiment, I did not use any filters and instead allowed the camera to capture its full spectral range. As a result, combined with the low altitude of the Moon during acquisition, the final image had a noticeable yellow tint. Using a UV/IR cut filter and imaging the Moon at a higher altitude would improve the colour, although this is also straightforward to correct during post processing.
The ToupTek AE676C was designed for planetary imaging, and it shows. The 512 MB onboard buffer is a real advantage, but it is worth making sure your PC can keep up with the data throughput to get the best performance.
Left Raw Image Stack, Right Processed image.
Final Statement
After putting the camera through the three main scenarios it is advertised for, namely as an all sky camera, a deep sky object (DSO) camera, and a planetary camera, I can confidently say that it is an incredible product for the price and a true Swiss Army knife of a camera. In my opinion, it truly excels as both a planetary camera and an all sky ca mera, while also delivering respectable performance for DSO imaging.
Through the hands-on experience, the ToupTek Astro AE676C demonstrated its versatility across different astrophotography applications, from deep-sky imaging under challenging light-polluted skies to high-speed lunar capture.
With its Sony IMX676 sensor, high sensitivity, fast frame rates, and compact design, the AE676C provides astrophotographers with a flexible imaging solution for exploring a wide range of celestial targets.
As Alin’s experience shows, real-world testing is one of the best ways to understand how an astronomy camera performs beyond specifications. Whether capturing faint nebulae or fine lunar details, the AE676C continues to offer new possibilities for astrophotographers looking to expand their imaging journey.