QHY 5-II colour planetary / guide camera

[Leebert]

Hi all,

I recently applied to test a new as yet unreleased version of the QHY5-II camera. It is a 1/3 inch 1.2 megapixel camera available in mono and colour (I have the colour version) for planetary and guiding use.

It arrived yesterday and, although I haven't tried it properly in anger, I have a few initial thoughts.

Installation of the drivers was straight forward and, with a restart of the PC I was getting images. I had hoped to get an image of Jupiter but sadly cloud stopped play

The camera itself comes packaged in a metal box and is a nice anodised aluminum cased unit with a separate locking ring. The camera is 1.25" in diameter and therefore can be used as an eyepiece would be used. This is good news for me personally as I want to try it directly in a PST without the need of a barlow to gain focus. The small lanyard is so you can secure it to something solid as it could slide into the OTA of a Newt say and land on the mirror!

The rear of the camera has the USB connection, an ST4 port for guiding and a tiny red LED. The QE for this colour camera is slightly better than the original mono QHY5.

I look forward to testing out on Jupiter, the Sun and the Moon.

I will post some images as soon as I have them.

Regards,

Lee

[Black Knight]

Interesting, I hadn't heard of this camera before.

[Auntystatic]

I'm looking forward to the new qhy7 also the qhy 21 and 22 are not far from full production

[Leebert]

I think they are looking for testers for the 21 & 22. Might be worth a look on the QHY CCD Forum maybe?

[Leebert]

I had a brief (very) look at the Sun with the camera and it is close to a full disc but not quite sadly. A 2 or possibly 3 panel mosaic would do it. That's a pity for me personally as I would have liked to capture the whole disk in one. A 1/2 inch chip like that in the original QHY5 would have got it with plenty of room to spare. There's never a 'one gadget does all' solution in Astronomy is there! Of course, a 1/2 inch chip camera would allow me to capture the sun in one but Jupiter for instance would appear smaller as viewed in the camera. Still, nothing that a barlow wouldn't fix

Images of something will appear here as soon as the cloud goes away

[Uplooker]

I saw one these cameras at PSP 2012. The person was given to do some testing / reviews of it. I must say it was absolutely tiny. The lanyard made it look more like a flash drive!! I do not know any more details than what I have read online. i did see someone posting about it on CN back in June, saying they had been given one for review purposes.

Ian

[riklaunim]

Well, color is not the best thing for Sun, Moon or guiding (that's why mostly mono guiders sell). It's easier for color planetary imaging.

[tich]

I've got one but I'm still struggling to get it to work with PHD. As for imaging well I'm still waiting for a decent night to give it a go although the capture software I found was pretty basic.

[Leebert]

I agree - a colour camera is not ideal for the Sun or Moon. However, I'm all up for trying out this cute little camera on anything I could see. The Sun did appear for a short while today so out came the PST. Here is the result of two 1000 frame stacks blended together.

I hope to give it a shot on the Moon and Jupiter tonight if the weather plays ball.

[Leebert]

Some Lunar shots from the evening of the same day.

Crater Tycho by MrLeebert, on Flickr

Mare Humorum and crater Schickard by MrLeebert, on Flickr