QHY5 questions

[tarqs101]

Hi,

I've been imaging with a cheap webcam and my DSLR for a year now with some positive results.

I feel I'm ready to step up to the next level and I'm interested in a new (as money is tight) camera. I have spotted the QHY5 camera here and had a few questions....

1, Is it possible to get colour images from this camera? A lot I've seen/found are mono. To get colour images would I use filters?

2, Is it possible to capture DSO's with this camera?

Thanks

Gavin

[adamsp123]

I, like most, probably use it for guiding not imaging, I would guess you get better results with your canon DSLR.

[simon84]

Hello there, I myself use the QHY6 which is similar to the 5. I'm only using it as something to learn ccd imaging with. Like you I have a dslr but I want to go the ccd route. Once I've learnt what I can I will either use it as a guide camera of sell it on but to answer your questions, 1, yes you can get colour images with a mono camera but you will need filters to achieve this, and 2, yes you can image dso's but the quality will not be very good compared to a dslr.

HTH.

[jgs001]

The 5 is CMOS and whilst that works great for lunar/planetary, it's not as good as yet at this level as CCD's. However, there was a mod done to the 5 with cooling and that made a big difference... there was a link posted recently for the images with a cooled 5 and they were quite amazing. Ok, the 300d is also a CMOS sensor, but I think the R&D budget of Canon more than outweights the limits of CMOS technology here.

[cardconvict]

i would stick with your canon dslr the qhy5 is mainly for guiding and you can do plantary imaging you can choose between a colour or mono

[PortableAstronomer]

I've had a QHY5 for about 15 months. I find the QHY5 is incredibly noisy; even too noisy for guiding aboove 2 second exposures.

On fainter stars, where the guiding image has to be stretched, the frames that I get are like an out-of-tune TV reception. My modified webcam produces much less noise (although that has a sony ccd sensor).

The sensitivity is not too bad considering it's a CMOS sensor.

For lunar/planetary work it produces nice clean images, in fact some awesome lunar images. But for other planets I prefer to go back to my webcam to get colour images without the hassle of filters.

There was a thread on here about someone who modified their QHY5 with a 'cold finger' aluminum rod and some thermal paste to dissipate the heat. It seemed to make a lot of difference. Very interesting.

[cardconvict]

i don't really have much of a problem with noise i have a one shot colour QHY5v i find i get less noise when i increase the exposer time

[jgs001]

I've not had too much of an issue with noise with my mono 5v, but I take a set of dark frames in PHD, and PHD auto subtracts those from the light it uses. It's done a good job so far.

[tarqs101]

Cheers for the replies everyone.