New QHY5 II guider Help

[obscura]

Acquired from MA recently but has yet to see the night sky. Off line it "appears to work" but I would appreciate what my expectations should be. Drivers used are those supplied by MA.

Have run it up in daylight on its guide scope ST80. PHD settings - cal 1500/2000, exp 3s (tried1-10), gain min to max, scope ascom & camera on board.

I was hoping to set a rough focus as well as how the QHY5 II performs. However, results seen are not as I hoped for.

ascom scope - just blank white screen with or without scope covered. No image obvious.

on camera - dark when covered whitish when uncovered. No image obvious.

In both focussing appears to make no difference. The only thing is that from the garden I have a target of 20m but the screen remains obstinately white (a little banding). Was tried with and without a 2" extension.

I would appreciate thoughts and advice on this one as I would like to avoid set up problems at night. Its behaviour is somewhat different to the QHY5v.

[sloz1664]

The QHY5L-II is a very sensitive cmos guider. exposures of 1/1000 sec is required to focus in daylight 

and even then you may have to use your lens cap (less the smaller centre cap).

You may need a 3" extension to gain focus.

cheers

Steve

[rob0971]

As above, 1ms & try & focus on something at least half a mile away. You will need to space the camera off the focus tube to get in focus. 3 inches sounds about right.

[obscura]

Thanks Steve, Rob. 1ms? That makes a lot of sense to me from what I saw this morning. I began to think that I was chasing my tail. A big step change from the QHY5v. The minimum speed for PHD is 0.05s - 200ms. How are you achieving shutter speeds of 1ms? Other guide s/w?

I have the QHY5-II not the QHY5L-II with a QE somewhat less than the L version but I guess it's still be much more sensitive than the older 'v'.

Surprised by 3" extension rather than 2" but I'll see what I can cobble together from my 2" etc. I saw a recommendation to load the WDM driver but I didn't see the need for that for guiding - which is the camera's role in life.

Back to the drawing board.

[rob0971]

1 ms is 1/1000 sec which I am sure I can get, but mine is the L version, so it may be different. I am away from home at the mo so can't check. just set it to the minimum & try it.

[rob0971]

just realized you are using PhD. Try using ezcap to get focus using live view, then switch to PhD to guide.

[obscura]

Ok I'll give it a whirl.

[obscura]

An update. I abandoned the problem last night trusting I would have clearer thoughts today. In fact it was 4am when an idea germinated.

Yesterday's probs were focus and too much light (in daylight!) for PHD's quickest shutter speed of 200ms. I think I have nailed the latter by removing just the small ST80 cap as suggested yesterday by Steve. There was still too much light coming in and thus the idea was the obvious - attach a moon filter in front of the QHY5 II. That appears to be making a very big difference as I can now see shadows rather than bright white.

I just need to play a little further with focus on more distant objects - and I have another dark filter at hand.

[obscura]

OK To summarise.

Forget the QHY5v its a million miles different.

For:-

QHY5 II, ST80, PHD - Finding focus in daylight  (better to get the heads up then than on a dark night)

1) QHY5 II is very very sensitive. Add a moon filter, maybe two, or its like to the camera.

2) ST80 just remove centre cap.

3) ST80 does require a good 3" extension for back focus.

4) PHD. 0.05secs - be good if you could get down to 1/1000 - 1/4000

5) Focus on object say 200m away though the gable end I used was les than that.

My thanks to all the input I got here as it was those that put me on the trail.

[Guest]

OK To summarise.

Forget the QHY5v its a million miles different.

For:-

QHY5 II, ST80, PHD - Finding focus in daylight  (better to get the heads up then than on a dark night)

1) QHY5 II is very very sensitive. Add a moon filter, maybe two, or its like to the camera.

2) ST80 just remove centre cap.

3) ST80 does require a good 3" extension for back focus.

4) PHD. 0.05secs - be good if you could get down to 1/1000 - 1/4000

5) Focus on object say 200m away though the gable end I used was les than that.

My thanks to all the input I got here as it was those that put me on the trail.

Hope this thread is still active

Is that 3 inches of back focus aswell as the focus tube being all the way out??

MM

[SteveA]

I seem to remember that there is an imaging application that ships with the QHY5ll...I'm sure I recall playing around with this after installing the drivers etc. You could use this to fully exploit the high frame rates and you will need to reduce your aperture as suggested if testing in daylight.

Steve

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

[Thalestris24]

I seem to remember that there is an imaging application that ships with the QHY5ll...I'm sure I recall playing around with this after installing the drivers etc. You could use this to fully exploit the high frame rates and you will need to reduce your aperture as suggested if testing in daylight.

Steve

Sent from my GT-I8190N using Tapatalk

Yes there is QHY's EZplanetary software that you can use with it. You have to turn the gain right down as it is very sensitive - QE is 74%, I think. It's also easier to align the guide scope with the main scope during the day too Firecapture also works with the QHY5L-ii

Louise