SW Finder/guider QHY5-II set up

[Richie092]

I thought I would write up my experiences setting up a finder guider seeing as there were a couple of relevant threads with questions on this recently.

Firstly, thanks go to a poorly Bernard from Modern Astronomy for his quick dispatch despite being under pressure from having 3 days off with man flu.

I decided on the QHY5-II after reading just about everything I could find on it, both good and bad and think for the price it will make a great guide camera and a capable intro camera for lunar. It is to be mounted on the back of my 9x50 SW finder scope.

As you would expect the camera came very well packed and in a nice tin too.

The first job was to remove the eyepiece and its holder from the back of the finder scope. This proved to be a bit difficult and I had to resort to using mole grips padded with tissue. I really needed to force it to come off so be brave when you do this…and careful of course.

Once off I then separated the two adaptor pieces supplied (£39) and replaced the eyepiece holder with the threaded ring (left) that holds the 1.25” camera holder (right).

Once assembled it looks like this.

It looks like this ring with the screw in it will ensure the camera can always be placed in the same position to negate the need for focusing it every time. Handy!

This is it assembled.

The 2 leads that came with it (ST4 and USB) are both a decent length so I think once I get it focused I will cable tie them to the side of the finder scope to take any strain off the ports.

Next step is software installation and focusing. Have read that the QHY5-II needs to be set as ASCOM late in PHD so I’m going to go and have a play with that now. Will let you know how it goes.

[dmahon]

If it's anything like the previous QHY5, install the drivers before you plug it into the USB socket.

[mart rich]

Richie

Thanks for sharing the info - I will be watching with interest how you get on, especially once it is set up. This is a step I hope to be taking shortly.

Martin

[Richie092]

If it's anything like the previous QHY5, install the drivers before you plug it into the USB socket.

Good call. The printed instructions give you a step by step walk through and it does make it pretty clear to install drivers first, I understand that it can cause a few nightmares if you don't.

I have it installed and working, well there is red flashing light on the back of the camera winking at me but until i can get set up out in the garden I cant take it any further re focusing or getting it to guide but as soon as this cloud clears....

[Richie092]

A quick update - Last night was the first chance I have had of trying the new guiding set up, I had previously loaded all drivers and tested it indoors but to be honest was a little dubious about going for it as I didn't want to waste an evening of clear skies faffing around.

As it turns out I needn't have worried. After setting up as normal (surprisingly difficult for a newbie without his recently modified finder) I stuck the QHY in the back of the finder with the focus ring half way down the body of the camera. It was as near to focused as i was led to believe it needed to be so just left it at that.

I then opened PHD guiding, plugged in camera, selected QHY5II from the drop down list, clicked the telescope mount button and selected on camera, clicked the loop button on a 2 second exposure, selected a nice bright star and hit the PHD button. It went through a calibration process of around 2 mins (could have been less but it felt like it in the cold) and then it all went green and started guiding. It really was that easy.

I didn't really get much of a chance to do any imaging as from my limited view point there was not a lot of options, I tried to find Panstarrs and got hypnotised by Jupiter but I did focus on a cluster and run off some 6 min exposures that i thought were just fine.

One important thing I did learn from activating the graph (great feature) is even though I lay a strip of carpet down, wear soft bottom shoes and was walking like a cat burglar you cannot, as I'm pretty sure I read in "making every photon count" image from decking, now matter how well you think you have made it.

Next step, off to make a pier and a loom for the cables.

[lennylovit]

nice one , got my one to work with PHD but made my own adaptor

[Richie092]

That looks very well made.

Is that where it is at focused? I have the camera in up to it's trade mark on the logo, a good 10-15 mil more than that to achieve it.

the guide rings look pretty solid too.

[Scott]

nice write up Richie. thanks for that. what software do you use for imaging? the reason I ask is that I use bye which supports phd

Scott

[Richie092]

I used BYE the first couple of times until the trial ran out and am now trying APT to see which I prefer.

Initial thoughts are that BYE is nicer on the eye, a little more user friendly/intuitive maybe and hasn't crashed once whereas APT will take a little more using to get to know it as it's a much more comprehensive piece of software that I think I will appreciate more as my knowledge grows. I did have a couple of lock ups with APT that I haven't investigated yet too.

BYE is easier but APT is probably going to be the one I stick with....when I know what I am doing.

[lennylovit]

no not in focus at that point just put in for pic , had to move it in a bit ,