QHY163M first light (M42 in Ha)

[Luis Campos]

Hi guys,

 

So finally after QHY sorted all the issues with UB2 I was able to capture some data to give a good test run to my new QHY163M, I choose something "easy" in Ha as this will be my primary aim with this camera, as I image mainly from my light polluted back yard at the city

This was just a quick and dirty processing, to be honest I was like a zombie after a days work but I had to do it, it's been siitting for a few days waiting for processing, something is not very well I suspect with my dark or bias frames as I see a lighter band at the bottom of the image, seems like the amp glow did not callibrate out perfectly but that should be something or some bad frame in the stack so will have to see that in better detail...also yes, the microlenses reflection is a concern, very well visible on the brighter star, there is a simmetrical reflection around the star, I sure hope the gurus will find an easy way to deal with this in the future...maybe a PS plug in hehehe

Appart from that, it need more frames to clean up the dim areas, but the details are quite something for only 480mm f/l.

 

setup used:

 

QHY163M

SW ED80 at f/6

Baader Ha 7nm filter

EQ6 mount autoguided with ASI 120MM and a 50mm finder

Stack of 35x300 secs at Gain20 Offset100 USB traffic 5

Plus 15x60 secs + 10x15 secs for the core (still slightly overexposed)

 

So this is a first "draft" and I will get back at it for inprovement when I'm feeling fresher must check the callibration frames and smooth out the background.

 

Here on Flickr resized to 50%:

 

https://www.flickr.c...eposted-public/

 

Hope you enjoy,

 

Cheers,

[Racey]

Nice image Luis... 

[Luis Campos]

Thanks Racey

[wimvb]

Nice result. Good to see the qhy camera version of this popular sensor. What's your verdict regarding performance so far? The zwo version is almost established by now. Qhy reported earlier that they had sorted out amp glow issues with their cooled cmos cameras. But having seen a dark image taken with the qhy, and one with the zwo, I have a feeling that zwo may be slightly better. Haven't done a side by side comparison though.

Thanks for sharing

[Luis Campos]

21 hours ago, wimvb said:

Nice result. Good to see the qhy camera version of this popular sensor. What's your verdict regarding performance so far? The zwo version is almost established by now. Qhy reported earlier that they had sorted out amp glow issues with their cooled cmos cameras. But having seen a dark image taken with the qhy, and one with the zwo, I have a feeling that zwo may be slightly better. Haven't done a side by side comparison though.

Thanks for sharing

Thanks

For sure there was quite a bit of problems with this camera at the begining, especially the problem with USB2 image dowlnoad hangs, after some trouble shooting QHY came up with an updated driver that solved this and now as this driver is using the cameras buffer in the correct way, USB transfer is no longer is no longer a problem, now we can lower USB traffic as low as 1 and still be ok as the image uses the buffer and only then downloads at watever speed via USB, this reduced the amp glow and it's now working much better. 10 min. subs are possible with good residual glow correction

Oh, and that heated window just works, I had nights with a dripping telescope and it was all good, no issues at all, it's a thing to consider

There is still a little "polishing" to be made, I see some exposure variations on the frames that don't seem to affect much the final image, but I would klike to understand why this happens.

Cheers,

 

 

 

 

[Coco]

Very nice, will make a great wide field camera when attached to a fast short focal length lens  

 

Whats wrong with your Mono DSLR's?  thought we would see more  

[Luis Campos]

10 minutes ago, Coco said:

Very nice, will make a great wide field camera when attached to a fast short focal length lens  

 

Whats wrong with your Mono DSLR's?  thought we would see more  

Thanks Guy

There´s nothing wrong with the mono DSLR really, it's just that these new cameras allow for much lower exposure time with prety much the same image quality... and...clear nights are becoming a rarity even here in Portugal so the faster the better

Cheers,

 

[ultranova]

Looks like you have a wining combination there Luis,

I think the camera has loads of promise, and with the

smaller pixel size will be well suited for lenses as well.

well done

Paul

[Luis Campos]

43 minutes ago, ultranova said:

Looks like you have a wining combination there Luis,

I think the camera has loads of promise, and with the

smaller pixel size will be well suited for lenses as well.

well done

Paul

Thanks Paul,

Indeed, also the versatility for lunar and planetary work is another great feature

I'm having lots of fun with it for sure

Cheers