QHY5

[Dave Moulton]

Hi all,

I see that the QHY5 comes in tow flavours one with a larger chip but slower frame rate.

question: Which is the prefered model when used exclusively as a guide camera

Dave

[jgs001]

Probably the QHY5, the 5v is designed as both a guider and a decent imaging camera, but has a smaller sensor. I don't really know much about the 5t, it was released after I researched.

[RikM]

I use the larger chip QHY5 as a guide rather than the 5v. Bigger sensor = more field of view = more chance of finding a good guide star. It's not a bad lunar imaging cam either but a bit noisy.

[Dave Moulton]

Chees guys

[Dave Moulton]

I use the larger chip QHY5 as a guide rather than the 5v. Bigger sensor = more field of view = more chance of finding a good guide star. It's not a bad lunar imaging cam either but a bit noisy.

Rik could I ask about exposure times what is the max exposure time on this camera . can you take images of a few seconds

John is your qhy5v capable of long exposure a few seconds or so

[RikM]

I don't know what the max time is but it's a meant to be a short exposure fairly high frame rate camera rather long exposure CCD. I normally use guide subs of 1.5 - 3 sec.

I have tried some 10sec shots of the Orion nebula just to see what it would do and it was very noisy. I'm not really sure how to use all the features of QGVideo. But I bought the camera for guiding rather than imaging.

[jgs001]

I've not tried long exposures with the 5v. I can't check at the mo, but there is a cooling mod for the 5 which does help with long exposures, it might be worth a google. The same mod doesn't look to be possible with the 5v though.

[lukebl]

It puzzles my why they have cams using the same QHY5 name, as they are each very different beasts with different sensors.

I use the QHY5 for guiding, and have also taken some reasonable lunar and planetary images with it. The big sensor is particularly useful for lunar imaging.

There are also some surprisingly good DSO images (from a member of this forum, I believe?) taken with the QHY5 here: QHY5, some planets & deepsky objects

Here's one of them (500 x 6 secs):

[Gina]

I'm considering buying a QHY5 for guiding. I'm going to try a webcam (MS LifeCam or SPC900NC LX modded) but I don't think the LifeCam is quite sensitive enough.

[ythanpythan]

I'm having a bash at M81 this evening, my spc900 couldn't find anything to track on, that said I'm still a novice so it's highly probable that I was doing something daft! I'm 90% sure I'll be buying a qhy5 soon!

[malc-c]

I've yet to try a web cam for guiding, but the QHY5 has no problems in picking out faint stars to guide on

[Gina]

I'm beginning to think that trying to scrimp on some things may be just like banging your head on a brick wall. A QHY5 is not really that expensive compared with everything else and would be one thing less to wonder about when things don't work. Personally, I think sometimes that I just make things a bit too difficult for myself

[ythanpythan]

Anything that reduces the amount of monkeying around and increases viewing or imaging time has to be good...right?

[Dave Moulton]

Thanks guys. Just been asked to table the question. The camera is on going to be used for guiding so three seconded exposures are fine. Just need a dearer consensus as to which one to buy.

[Zakalwe]

I'm beginning to think that trying to scrimp on some things may be just like banging your head on a brick wall. A QHY5 is not really that expensive compared with everything else and would be one thing less to wonder about when things don't work. Personally, I think sometimes that I just make things a bit too difficult for myself

Very much this. I wasted an entire evening messing about with a Lifecam, trying to guide with it. I sacked it off and bought a QHY5. The first night out with it it was guiding like a charm.

Sometimes life's too short to make things more difficult than they need to be.

[RikM]

This one: QHY5 - Guide camera from £179 - The Industry Standard!

Top of the list! I got the £189 including st4 cable. Camera colour can vary - mine's a red one

[russ.will]

This one: QHY5 - Guide camera from £179 - The Industry Standard!

Top of the list! I got the £189 including st4 cable. Camera colour can vary - mine's a red one

I went for the tarts hand-bag red too, although I got it plus the ST4 cable for a good deal less by picking it up in person from Astrofest. Apparently, I will be shot if I pony () up the actual figure.

I must say that getting it to work as advertised has been, by far and away, one of the easiest tasks since I started this hobby. Top product.

Russell

Russell