Planetary and Guide - All in one or separate?!

[Fordos Moon]

Saving for an ST80 and guide cam possibly QHY5v and looking into a bit of planetary imaging.

Question is - will one camera do both eg ASI120MC or QHY5v or should I look at 1 camera for each job?

Had some success with my Xbox cam lately with Saturn and been inspired to do a little more but main interest is still my deep sky stuff.

[Marc1980]

I dont think there is an answer, it depends on what results you are looking for. My plan is to get a qhy5v mono and use it as a guide cam an planetary cam. While I was checking it out I cam across this.

The results from the qhy5v are more than adequate for my needs.

Kind regards

Marc

Sent from my galaxy s3 using tapatalk 2

[Fordos Moon]

Thanks Marc sounds like we are having similar thoughts, I appreciate your response, Bob

[x6gas]

Saving for an ST80 and guide cam possibly QHY5v and looking into a bit of planetary imaging.

Question is - will one camera do both eg ASI120MC or QHY5v or should I look at 1 camera for each job?

Had some success with my Xbox cam lately with Saturn and been inspired to do a little more but main interest is still my deep sky stuff.

I can recommend the QHY IMG0H. It has the same Sony 618 chip that is found in the Imaging Source planetary cams but has built in St-4 switching / port.

I use it mostly for guiding but on the odd occassion I fancy doing some planetary imaging I have it there...

[SnakeyJ]

Fordos,

I don't think you can quibble with the planetary images being produced from the ASI120MM (MT9M034), excellent sensitivity, high frame rates and decent resolution provide a good bang for buck - though the ASI camera does not have the ST4 guide port - I'm not sure on continued availability of the QHY5V (MT9V032), which is not a lot less sensitive and lower resolution, but I opted for the QHY5L-II mono which is the same MT9M034 sensor as the ASI120MM. It retails for around £ 80 less and has an intergral ST4 guide port to its advantage as is also smaller and lighter.

Only got it last week and have been offline due to a broken synscan handset, so only tried it manually on the AR152S - but it toasts the Firefly MV Mono and looks pretty useful.

Until I get the expensive DSO Imaging bug, I'm really limited to planetary imaging so not really sure I will need a dedicated quide cam - however the ST4 port is a 'nice to have' feature for the future. The QHY6 and QHY IMGOH are small CCD based, both have the ST4 and single stage cooling though lower resolution, but with they can also be used for imaging smaller DSOs

If you were just looking for guiding, I think the SX Lodestars have it at the moment - small sensitive mono CCD seems best for this role. There do seem to be a number of grumbles about the tight spacing of the USB and ST4 ports, but I think these are ok with care and some cable retention.