What’s the best?

[Radec]

Guys - time to choose a new camera.

I have been using QHY cameras for some time but have decided to think again.

What is the view on alternatives for lunar, solar and planetary?

The only constraints will be USB3 obviously and price as I don’t want to spend a fortune (circa 500).

The solar is Ha through a Lunt 50 and I’m partial to full disk images.

Scopes can be seen below with the exception of my Swift 77mm refractor which has been very good on the moon.

Thanks in advance

Keith

[vlaiv]

Out of curiosity, what do you think is wrong with your old ones?

Here is what I would do - for solar and lunar I would use preferably mono camera. If you value full disc shots without doing mosaics - then you need sufficiently large chip.

For regular planetary imaging - I prefer color camera.

Your 178c is good for much of this. Solar is tricky because it involves Ha, and mono camera is better there, but 178c is sensitive in Ha with all pixels - some more, and some less. Using flats will even things out, and although it is not the best solution it will certainly work.

Having said all of the above, what do you hope to gain by getting a new camera? How much improvement?

In mono segment, way to go would be ASI290 or alike camera - due to low read noise. However 178 mono sensor is not trailing much behind, and I wonder if it makes sense to get one since you already have 178c. 290 will almost cover full disk with Lunt so you will need at least two panels for full disk image with it. Same goes for Lunar.

For planetary, I think the best option at the moment is 385 based camera due to lowest read noise and other characteristics that are more than fine.

 

[Radec]

Thanks for that, I'll check them out.

The reason is that the QHY5P-11m has decided to cease most functionality. It records light passing over it but cannot sustain more that about 0.1 FPS - no idea why so I'm trying to investigate the causes (it used to work fine but has been dormant for 2 years or so before trying again recently) with a new laptop. It is also usb2 which compared with the 178c is just way too slow.

The 178c is a good camera and has given some pretty good results on Jupiter but for solar in particular and in mono mode, it is not sensitive enough. Colour on the sun is a waste of pixels imo.

So, all in all it's time to move on and hence my question.

Thanks for the comments

[Adam J]

Yes however you slice it imx178c is the sensor of choice given your requirements. It's going to give you a camera that's good for all the targets you mentioned. But for sure get it in mono for best results on the moon and sun. 

Edited May 26, 2019 by Adam J

[ebdons]

Hi, I have a 174M hypercam and although I have yet to use it on planets, the sun comes out well as does the moon, but new are £600 and not many are 2nd hand yet. yes it's a mono but it does have a good rep.  sun shot last week using 174m with wedge and 120 st. ton

Edited May 27, 2019 by ebdons
update

[vlaiv]

4 minutes ago, ebdons said:

Hi, I have a 174M hypercam and although I have yet to use it on planets, the sun comes out well as does the moon, but new are £600 and not many are 2nd hand yet. yes it's a mono but it does have a good rep. ton

That is an option, but 174 chip has quite a large pixels, and that is going to limit resolution on small scopes. It's got 5.86um pixels, and compare that with 178 for example and 2.4um pixels - that is almost x2.5 times smaller pixels, so you would need x2.5 barlow to match sampling rates between two cameras and FOV would suffer.

[ebdons]

Yes that's true as I had that issue with my 80edt and is much better on a 120 and above frac. the op has a 127 edf so he has a wider choice maybe? ton

[vlaiv]

My primary reference to pixel size was in terms of Ha solar and Lunt 50 - very small focal length scope, but yes, 127mm one could well use 174 chip with suitable barlow for planets.

[Radec]

I’m looking at the 174 as a mate has one and swears by it. The pixel size is an issue for the 50mm Lunt though (the only solar I intend to use). This tends to lean me towards the 178m and back around the circle I come. Not too happy with the fact that the 5P-11m has apparently decided to retire early plus there are some possibilities with the 174 and certain DSOs which add to the party a bit.

thanks for the continuing input chaps

Keith

[Davey-T]

I bought a 178MM solely for solar on the Lunt LS60, uncooled as there didn't seem much point getting cooled, not perfect but nearest thing I could find, £325.00 on FLO ATM, just gets a full disc vertically so a bit of careful nudging required to get it all in, shorter focal length of the LS50 should leave plenty of spare sky.

Dave

[ebdons]

Yep, not tried the 174M on DS seriously yet, you would have to keep exp time to a manageable length, in the winter it would be better tho, unless a peltier could be retro fitted easily? but it's a nice light weight cam  that has DS uses, certainly on the brighter objects? using on an SCT would be better for planetary? ton

[Radec]

Until recently I had a CPC800 and that's how I took my recent planetary images (as with the avatar) - had to go though due to physical constraints where I live now (carrying it a long way from storage to patio along an uneven cottage path).

Dave - the 178c I have now gets the full disk in perfectly; it's just a waste of pixels using the colour matrix.I had some great results with the 5P-11m once I got Mr Newton sorted! - shame it's borked. 

[Radec]

Just to wrap this up, I pulled the trigger on the 178m today. Couldn’t justify the extra expense and didn’t want the larger pixels. Thanks for the help all, will post some images when the penance is done🥴