guide camera QHY

[Daniel-K]

im looking at choice's for a guide camera and have narrowed it down to 3 could all well within my budget for a guide camera i like the look of the QHY any advise on either of these?

http://www.modernastronomy.co.uk/camerasGuider.html#IMGOH

http://www.modernastronomy.co.uk/camerasGuider.html#mammutt

http://www.modernastronomy.co.uk/camerasGuider.html#loadstar

[RikM]

I don't know the first two sorry ( I use the cheapo QHY5 for guiding, which is great) the Loadstar is a fairly legendary guide cam though.

Why not give Bernard a ring as well. I am sure he can talk you through the pros and cons of each one.

[Black Knight]

I'd second what Rik says, give Bern a ring. He's a top bloke, and I'm sure he'd answer any questions you may have.

[mgirdwood]

I jsut bought a Starlight express Costar ( a QH5 drivivative i believe) which has firmly put me onto the guide road. as a complete beginner in all things astronomy the only thing i would say having thought about 2 of those you mentioned which are cooled, was for guiding i couldnt justify the need of the cheaper cooled systems as i have the dslr for deep space and planetary if i need, and putting the extra pounds away into the Atik CCD jar forthe real camera at a later date seemedabetter option.

there are a lot of experienced folk around here who i am sure will provide much in depth reasoning.

[mallorcasaint]

QHY5 is great once you get it set up!

[Daniel-K]

i use to have a QHY5 but found it didnt pick up to many stars thats why i want something more sensitive

[jnc71106]

See if you can find an atik 16IC s/h they are superb guidecams

[kookoo_gr]

if your budget can aford a lodestar guide camera go for it. i moved from a qhy5 to a lodestar for my oag system and the difference is just like day and night. with the qhy i was struggling to find a guide whereas with the lodestar i can find at least 3 guide stars with my oag system. if you are going to use a guide scope then the qhy is the way to go since you will be able to find guide stars and have decent guiding and as you said you can use it for planetary imaging dut for future upgrade to higher f ratios i would recomend the lodestar. here http://www.stark-labs.com/craig/articles/assets/Guider_Roundup_API.pdf is an article form craig stark about guide cams

[shaunster]

Most people find the QHY not very sensitive because when using it with PHD (as most do) it defaults to 50% gain, you have to set it manually to 100% or whatever each time you image and the camera miraculously becomes more sensitive, most people who say the QHY is not sensitive, or found no stars with it had the gain set to 50%.

I live in heavy LP and never once have I failed to pick up a guidestar with my QHY5 and ST80.

[Merlin66]

I use both the QHY5 and more recently the Lodestar...

For faint target stars ( I use a beamsplitter - guide arrangement on the spectroscope) the lodestar excels...for the usual DSO guiding I'd say the recommended ST80/QHY5 combo is hard to beat.

[Daniel-K]

i always use to move the gain to 100% with my QHY5 ST80 combo too but struggled to find guide stars this time i will be guiding with a ED80 should have mentioned at the start of the thread what i was using it with which one would be better suited

[Merlin66]

ED80 - ST80 same aperture...same light grasp...same stars...just a bit tighter (due to focal length) in the ST80.

[Daniel-K]

i thought with a more senseative camera it will pick up more stars

[RikM]

I have never yet failed to find a guide star with my QHY5 and 50mm f/4 finder guider. I have no idea what the setting is in PHD but I don't think I ever adjusted the gain.

[Earl]

I was using a QHY6 until it gave up, im now using a Mammut and im very impressed with it (should be at the price LOL)

[shaunster]

i thought with a more senseative camera it will pick up more stars

Yes it should, but if the cheapest camera will always net you a choice of guidestars then you have to question the worth of buying the expensive camera. I think the more sensitive cameras are better for use with an OAG myself, for the standard ST80 or finderguider setup then a QHY5 is perfect..

[sologuitarist61]

Yes, I am another vote for the QHY5 (in my case) - it does what I want and it does it well.

[Daniel-K]

are you using guide scope rings or just mounted on the. Dovetail ? Last I had mine was just mounted onto the dovetail piggybacked

[mgirdwood]

i have my Costar on the ST 80 and SW guide mount and like most others i havent had probelm to find a star even at the standard 50% in PHD.

[Daniel-K]

I really have my mind set one of these but think I will get another st80 for now and image with the ed80 I'm not planning on running anything bigger than a 102mm triplet next to a ed80 side by side I think a heq5 will be enough as the 2 scopes weigh 10kg together that should leave me ample for the ccd any thoughts on this ??

[icrusoe]

I'm also looking at purchasing this camera for my setup, thanks for the links!

[RikM]

I really have my mind set one of these but think I will get another st80 for now and image with the ed80 I'm not planning on running anything bigger than a 102mm triplet next to a ed80 side by side I think a heq5 will be enough as the 2 scopes weigh 10kg together that should leave me ample for the ccd any thoughts on this ??

I think that even long term the ST80 will be a better guide scope than an ED80. Faster and wider field of view.

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[springbok]

Useful to see peoples actual results / experiences of the QHY5. It does seem a very popular guide cam.

[daneel]

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement my QHY5 finder guider package from Modern Astronomy fixed all my guiding problems. I prefer using the computer to look through the viewfinder rather than craning my neck at awkward angles.

I've never had a problem finding a guide star even with the gain at 50% because the field of view is so large. The camera sensitivity is adequate even at exposures of 0.5 seconds which I use for guiding.

Now with Maxim DL I plate-solve the guider image and use that to sync the alignment. The I can click on an object in the guide image and slew to that exact point.

I'd definitely recommend a finder/guider setup.