QHY8L one shot v Altair astro Hypercam 183M V2 Mono Camera

[AMcD]

I think starting out with what you have and then trading up on the second hand market when your ability has outgrown your equipment is really good advice.  I started out with a second hand Celestron Celestar C8 on its original fork mount doing visual astronomy, before putting the C8 on a second hand Meade LXD55 Mount with a Meade DSI camera to start imaging.  After a few years I sold the LXD 55 and bought a second hand Losmandy G11 and put the C8 on it with a second hand Starlight Xpress SXV M7 mono CCD.  Most recently I have added to this set up a second hand 6” achromatic refractor and a QHY8.  This journey has taken nearly 20 years.

AP is a wonderful, infuriating, rewarding and exasperating hobby.  Building up slowly with what you have allows you to master the basics before investing further if you are still hooked.  It also means that those times you want to lock the whole damn pile of equipment in a cupboard, never to be seen again, are easier when what is locked in the cupboard has not cost thousands and thousands of pounds.

As for the QHY8, I really like it.  It is easy to use and reliable.  As another poster has said, it has large pixels so is really better with longer focal lengths.  I have been using it with a Hyperstar on the front my C8 but I have now moved it to the back of the scope to get a much longer focal length and therefore better resolution on the big pixels.  The Bintel Astronomy Calculator is another good tool to experiment with different scope / camera combinations (https://www.bintel.com.au/tools/astronomy-calculator/?v=322b26af01d5).  The author of the calculator has a YouTube channel that offers a great selection of ‘how to’ videos (https://m.youtube.com/c/DylanODonnell/videos?disable_polymer=true&itct=CBIQ8JMBGAEiEwjdm_DOh5_vAhVUPPEFHXO3CoY%3D).

The only other issue with the QHY8 is icing on the CCD.  I don’t know if the QHY8L suffers from this as well but I have found that a 2” dew-strap wrapped around the nose of the camera solves the issue.

Have fun... 

[david_taurus83]

9 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

QHY all the way, steer clear of the AA cameras...👍🏼

Bad experience? I'm on the FB page and don't see many issues reported. They are also quoting their version of the IMX571 cameras as having lowest read noise of the bunch.

[Clarkey]

9 hours ago, The Barber said:

That's a nice picture what are you using 

That was probably a little unfair - it was the astro camera and 17 hours of data and an RC8. However, as a relative novice (which after a year I still classify myself as) you can progress with some effort. Below is a picture taken with the 600D in relatively poor conditions which shows the sort of result you can expect with a single nights imaging. Also, do a search on Astrobin for your camera - there will probably be lots of examples of what is possible.

[Stuart1971]

9 hours ago, The Barber said:

Is the qhy worth the investment 

I am not going to give my opinion on here about a camera, as it may offend people but you can PM me and I will explain...

[Stuart1971]

1 hour ago, david_taurus83 said:

Bad experience? I'm on the FB page and don't see many issues reported. They are also quoting their version of the IMX571 cameras as having lowest read noise of the bunch.

Oh yes.....👍🏼

[Adam J]

17 hours ago, The Barber said:

What about the atik 314L mono

Still a great camera for a beginner. At the right price grab it a filter wheel and some good filters to go with it. You will have a blast. The hypercam 183 is not cooled and the QHY8L is not as sensitive. get the 314L out of these options. Don't worry about image scale too much when starting out. You won't get the detail unless you can get the SNR to support it anyhow. 

[Adam J]

17 hours ago, The Barber said:

My normal source is ebay or astro buy sell. Have also seen atik 420 mono.

Do you mean 428? 

[Adam J]

16 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

QHY all the way, steer clear of the AA cameras...👍🏼

What's your reasoning? 

[The Barber]

It says 420

[Stuart1971]

9 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Do you mean 428? 

6 minutes ago, Adam J said:

What's your reasoning? 

As I have said, I will not discuss that on here if you want to know then PM me...👍🏼

[The Barber]

I haven't got one really. Just don't know which one to go for. Too many to choose from. But want one to to me forward 

[Stu Wilson]

I've had a qhy8l for a couple of years.

I've just got a new TS OPTICS f4 photon. Coupled with a coma corrector this is a sample of the images I'm getting. Bare in mind the coma corrector for the f4 ota I now use is £260 so things start getting expensive and the altair quad band filter I've been using is £160 too so once you pop in the price of a decent camera you could be looking at divorce lol.

Edited March 18, 2021 by Stu Wilson