QHY8L - Good Idea/Bad Idea?

[ollypenrice]

I haven't tried or seen the very latest QHYs and look forward to doing so. If they've cranked up the quality then I'm delighted and, yes, I'd love to give one a whirl.

Edit; I'd also like to have a play with a decent dataset from one of their colour cameras. I often feel QHY OSC images have a distinctive look, rather red-brown dominated, and I wonder if this is just from the processing or is inherent in the data. I'd be surprised if it were in the data. If anyone would like to throw some my way I'd be delighted.

Nebulosity or Artemis? I use both every working night and quite dislike Nebulosity. The killer is the abominable screen stretch which takes ages of faffing before it will show you anything. I also dislike the compulsory crosshairs in Frame and Focus. (Maye they can be removed? Please tell!) And I dislike having to go through Abort, which seems to take a long time, though it isn't really long, I know. The people who don't like Artemis (and many love it as I do) tend to be softare people who know how it was made and how its 'look' has dated. I know nothing of that. As a user it gives me just what I want without obliging me to have things I don't want. It allows me to move fast between operations. Oh, and changing a fliter doesn't shut it down a couple of times a week as happens with Nebulosity and the SX filterwheel. It does re-open easily though. But above all a 5 second bin 2 exposure in Artemis and a push of the log scale screen stretch shows me my object. Not a chance in Nebulosity. Auto stretch shows nothing and the black and white sliders are far too sensitive and drive me potty still after nearly two years.

Olly

[Zakalwe]

You can remove the crosshairs in Frame and Focus by going into the Preferences and slecting the tickmark:

I don't mind the sliders in Neb...they work OK for me. What does drive me nuts is the workflow for processing images. Why Craig Starkey has implemented it in this way I will never know. You have to keep reloading the outputs of the previous step as the input for the next step and you end up with a folder of useless files. Why didn't he create a batch file to do this???

Artemis looks dated as hell...straight off of Windows 95. If the developers are not implementing modern GUI APIs then what else are they not implementing. I took one look at it and promptly un-installed it. Blowed if I am letting something that isn't updated to recent standards onto my machine for it to cause all sorts of problems that'll be nigh-on impossible to track down. its probably using ancient versions of DLLs and overwriting things that it shouldn't be touching.

I guess that if you are using an Atik FW then it will integrate with that. I use an Xagyl FW which is ASCOM compatible. I can drive it from Nebulosity or by using a simple ASCOM app.

[Zakalwe]

The killer is the abominable screen stretch which takes ages of faffing before it will show you anything. Auto stretch shows nothing and the black and white sliders are far too sensitive and drive me potty still after nearly two years.

Clear the tickmark under Auto. Then click on the slider that you want to adjust and use the arrow keys on the keyboard. Each press of the left or right arrow (or up and down) moves the slider by 10 units. Easy peasy

[PARTY MARTY]

Hey Olly all you mentioned on the last thread is software problems not the actual CCD where talking about, here on EZCAP which is provided with the QHY CCDs you can switch off the cross hairs while frame and focusing! For it really depends on what capturing and stacking software you're comfortable with really. For me I find that the freeware stuff is really good, they might be basic to the hardened imager, but for myself and many others I find EZCAP and Deep sky Stacker easy to use, ok limitations on what you can do but really I find that Nebulosity difficult to use as well, I cannot make comment on Artemis cos I've haven't used it, I've heard a lot of people give very bad press on it, but there's some many who swear by it that it's unbelieavable program to use depite looking ageing, but if it does the job than who cares, I love to try it out only if it was freeware and will it work on QHY CCDs, I'm not sure but the Artemis does look good seeing some very good images from Atik CCDs. I must admit I did under estimated the Atiks, after seeing one of my mates own a 314L+ it is very good CCD, excellent images, I've compared to my QHY8L and to be honest there's not much difference in Engineering quality both look stunningly beautiful and there both good value for money! Their electronics are very similar really, it just depends how new or old the CCDs are. I notice that QHY quality as improved massively, I've looked at old pictures and forums of the old QHY8L and QHY8 and they did look cheap and nasty back then and the frosting problem was really the big issue, Other than that I'm sure that both Atik and QHY have come a long way! Even my new QHY 9 MONO as new improvements, it as heated window which prevents frosting or dewing, it as twin dessicant tube caps, it even as improved metal mechincal shutter which was a big problem with the QHY9 being faulty. Again my advice is like I advise many of my friends, don't buy a brand new car the first model produced in the first year, I tend to buy cars within that model class which have been around 2-3 years, you'll that most design faults are usually ironned out by then!

The QHY 21/ 22 is stunning and the engineering quality is unique, but again I'll wait for another 3 years till I consider one, as you know Olly I'm limited on budget and If I was to invest in a lot of money on a CCD, I need to do my research before I burn a hole in pocket, So making the right choice is really criucial for me, And I'm sure many others will agree with on this! Again CCD imaging is not cheap at all???

But again QHY and Atik are getting better at this on improving their cameras to able many limited budgeted astronomers own great CCD's, Again it's like mobile phones, in the 80's only the rich had them, Nowadays everyone's got one!! I'm sure that QHY and Atik are more focussed in this particualry area, cos where they will make the most profit out of it!!!

[ollypenrice]

Clear the tickmark under Auto. Then click on the slider that you want to adjust and use the arrow keys on the keyboard. Each press of the left or right arrow (or up and down) moves the slider by 10 units. Easy peasy

I'll try that. This setup is on a MAC, not mine, but the arrow key control sounds better than moving the sliders manually. What I find is that once anywhere near right, a movement of the black point has far too much effect and clips the image completely or whites it out. Thanks for the pointers. I may yet learn to love Nebulosity.

All my stacking I do in AA5 which is lightnig fast and ultra logical.

We must beware of straying from the QHY thread but I think that hearing all this stuff being aired may help in camera choice.

Marty, you may be amused to hear that I have never had a mobile phone! (I've never felt the need to stand in Sainsbury's and say, I'm in Sainsbury's. Sainsbuury's. SAINSBURY'S. Yer breaking up. Only joking, I may yet get one but then she'd be able to get me back from wherever I was hiding...

Olly

[Zakalwe]

Marty, you may be amused to hear that I have never had a mobile phone! (I've never felt the need to stand in Sainsbury's and say, I'm in Sainsbury's. Sainsbuury's. SAINSBURY'S. Yer breaking up.

You don't know what you are missing....

:tongue2:

[Earl]

A plus for QHY, my QHY6 was broken, purchased second hand of a SGL member about 3 years ago.

It was repaired and delivered back to me FOC.

Very impressed with that level of service, well above and beyond.

[russellhq]

We must beware of straying from the QHY thread but I think that hearing all this stuff being aired may help in camera choice.

I think this is all good discussion since it's the whole package you need to consider and not just the quality of the camera.

Does anyone use the QHY8L with an ED80 and skywatcher reducer? I was wondering how to use filters with this set-up?

[PARTY MARTY]

Yes Russell! I use a Lunt 80mm ED APO F7 which is similar to the skywatcher, here I use a Telescope service 0.8x focal reducer and field flattenner (FR/FF) which speeds up the scope to F5.5, here I use a variable T2 extension tube from Telescope service to achieve the 55mm gap needed for FR/FR. with that I can screw a Hutech LP PS filter on the FF/FR.

This set-up works really well, you can just get the entire Andromenda Galaxy within the QHY8L chip, which is quite big!!

You don't need coloured filters for the QHY8L, the hutech LP PS helps you to image in bad light pollution or when the moon is up (half phase max) without adding weird colours to the images from the filter!

I hope this answers your questions mate?

[russellhq]

What size is your Hutech filter? Is it the 2" version?

[PARTY MARTY]

Yes it's the 2" variant, which fits perfectly on FF/FR mate! Bear in mind that Hutech is not cheap filter (around 209 euros) but it's the best filter to use on the QHY8L!

[russellhq]

Yes it's the 2" variant, which fits perfectly on FF/FR mate! Bear in mind that Hutech is not cheap filter (around 209 euros) but it's the best filter to use on the QHY8L!

Check my sig, I have the Hutech EOS size filter for my DSLR , works very well for me! Unfortunately i don't think I can use this on the QHY8L and would need to buy a different sized one.

[PARTY MARTY]

Yes you'll need the 2" one I'm afraid mate!

[russellhq]

Just had a thought. I could have a stab at debayering the Canon and could use it to take some Lum to go with the QHY8L. Good idea/bad idea? (Not considering the difficulty of the mod!)

[ollypenrice]

Just had a thought. I could have a stab at debayering the Canon and could use it to take some Lum to go with the QHY8L. Good idea/bad idea? (Not considering the difficulty of the mod!)

Very difficult to do. I know somebody who does it professionally. Expect to lose the first few cameras.

Olly

[Gina]

I lost a couple of cameras doing my "super cooling" mod when I removed too many seemingly unwanted parts I'm now working on "debayering" having prccticed on a couple of dead sensors so I'm just hoping I don't lose another This is a super-extreme mod and not to be tackled lightly.

[russellhq]

I lost a couple of cameras doing my "super cooling" mod when I removed too many seemingly unwanted parts I'm now working on "debayering" having prccticed on a couple of dead sensors so I'm just hoping I don't lose another This is a super-extreme mod and not to be tackled lightly.

Thanks Gina. I'm watching your thread with great interest! I think it may have been you who inspired me to filter mod my Camera

[Earl]

Canons suffer from red thermal noise iirc, how does this pan out on the removed bayer matrix?

Nice big Mono chips..... hummm

[Coco]

Debayer the QHY8L? now theres a thought..

The QHY8 has the old sensor that was used in the noisy Nikon D70 back in 2004?

.

[russellhq]

Debayer the QHY8L? now theres a thought..

The QHY8 has the old sensor that was used in the noisy Nikon D70 back in 2004?

.

Not sure. But with the set point cooling, it produces very little noise.

[Coco]

I have used a DSLR (modded and unmodded), a OSC CCD camera and a mono CCD.

Which OSC did you have?

[Zakalwe]

Debayer the QHY8L? now theres a thought..

The QHY8 has the old sensor that was used in the noisy Nikon D70 back in 2004?

.

The QHY8 used the ICX453 chip. The QHY8L has the ICX413.

They are pretty old chips. The cooling helps a lot and the 8L is very noise free. I rarely found that darks made a huge difference.

[swag72]

Which OSC did you have?

I've got a 16HR OSC

[russellhq]

QHY8L arrived today Rain forecast

[Teslar]

Nice. I've not had the chance to use mine this year. A small matter if a house sale and purchase has pre occupied me. I'm still having my priorities set for Me