QHY5-III290C & Sharpcap

[Jarvo]

Hi all - it seems like ages since I posted anything but a poorly Missus takes priority.

I've just bought a new QHY5-III290C camera (which is a thing of beauty in itself). I went outside a couple of evenings ago eager to get some first light going through the thing.

I've attached the initial image from the camera and Sharpcap and I'm looking for this forums expertise.

So the kit set up consists of:

Skywatcher Pro 150mm Maksutov-Cassegrain OTA
EQ5 Mount and tracking
Said QHYIII290C camera
IR filter

Object in question is M15 in Pegasus. Taken with the camera using Sharpcap then processed in Deep Sky Stacker.

100 x Lights (sub 1 second) plus 20 darks.

If someone could take a look at the attached picture and share some views. Theres a lot of noise in the image which is my main query. Wondering whether its caused at the camera end, the sharpcap and or in post production.

This is a first image so wasn't expecting it to be pretty - just happy to get an image on the chip !

If you need anymore info let me know.

Thanks in advance

Steve

 

 

 

 

Autosave002.tif

[John78]

Can you post a single frame?  What were the gain and offset settings you used in Sharpcap, or you can post up the CameraSettings.txt from the folder the subs were saved in.

[Thalestris24]

Hi, it's out of focus and only ~100s integration time. It's really a planetary camera and is probably inherently noisy. I couldn't see any colour - maybe check your dss settings?

Louise

ps next time convert to jpg before posting

[Jarvo]

Thanks for the replies you two. 

John, Camerasettings.txt below:

[QHY5III290C]
Debayer Preview=On
Output Format=SER file (*.ser)
Binning=1x1
Capture Area=1920x1080
Colour Space=RAW16
Pan=0
Tilt=0
Force Still Mode=Off
Enable Live Broadcast=Off
USB Traffic=9
Offset=80
Amp Noise Reduction=On
Frame Rate Limit=15 fps
Gain=555
Exposure=1084.4717743731
Timestamp Frames=Off
White Bal (B)=64
White Bal (G)=64
White Bal (R)=64
Contrast=0
Brightness=0
Gamma=1
Apply Flat=None
Subtract Dark=None
#Black Point
Display Black Point=0
#MidTone Point
Display MidTone Point=0.5
#White Point
Display White Point=1
TimeStamp=2018-10-10T20:16:54.1040419Z
SharpCapVersion=3.1.5219.0

 

 

[Thalestris24]

I suppose the camera is geared up for guiding or planetary imaging via video recording. You might get better results by using longer exposures and stacking lots of them but it's probably not very good for dso imaging. It might be ok for live stacking (I've not much experience of that though I have a minicam5s which is a cooled qhy5l-ii mono cam. Even cooled, the images I got from it were noisy. )

Louise

[Jarvo]

Hi Louise -the camera has a really sensitive chip which enables some DSO astrophotography as you can see the images on screen. I've reached out to QHY on the noise issue. I'll  definitely be extending the exposure times next time I'm out.

Steve 

[Thalestris24]

1 minute ago, Jarvo said:

Hi Louise -the camera has a really sensitive chip which enables some DSO astrophotography as you can see the images on screen. I've reached out to QHY on the noise issue. I'll  definitely be extending the exposure times next time I'm out.

Steve 

Try maybe 30s x 120 next time - that will give you 60mins integration time. Plus calibration frames, of course :). The sensitivity of the chip is the reason that qhy brand it as a guide/planetary camera. It will do video of bright planets on the one hand and exposures of 1.5-3s as a guide cam on the other. You could also try the camera with PHD2.

Louise

[Jarvo]

Thanks for the advice Louise. It's all coming back to me now