Can I have a QHY5LiiM and a QHY5LiiC

[SteveInNZ]

Can I have two QHY5Lii (either one M and one C or two of the same type) cameras attached and appear as distinct items in SharpCap ?

Steve.

[admin]

Hi Steve,

it should work. I've not tried it with those two cameras in particular but I have just tested with a QHY5LIIC and a QHY174M and both show up with no problems.

Robin

[turfpit]

Steve

I own both cameras and can confirm that both show up on the camera menu when connected simultaneously with SharpCap 3.1.

Dave

[kuzby]

Hello Dave,
What are your experiences with the QHY5iiC and M ? You have both, as I read. I’m deciding now if to buy C or M. I’d like to use it primarily for guiding. For these purposes seems to be better M because of better sensitivity. But besides it I’d want to use it for Moon and Planetary photo, so C woud be better. I have read somewhere that C is also good for guiding, because the amount of visible stars is satisfying. As a guidescope I have refractor 60/240. Could you tell me your opinion or recommendations ? Thanks.
Zbynek

[turfpit]

Zbynek

Yes I have both models. The original plan was to use the M for guiding and the C for lunar/planetary. As always, these astro-imaging projects take longer to realise than first planned. I haven't done any guiding yet as I am managing to get up to 180s exposures without guiding for 1h 40m captures using a large frame Altair 183C, https://www.astrobin.com/412451/, or Canon 600D https://www.astrobin.com/413146/E/.

I just posted this viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1781 from this morning with a QHY5LII-M

My M lunar images https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=turfpit+qhy5lii-m. I am very pleased with how this camera is performing.

My C images https://www.astrobin.com/359710/?nc=user. The M27 is poor, as the histogram is banged up against the left hand side which means I have lost faint data. That was a year ago and I have learned much since then - maybe I should redo this one. Since I bought the C camera, the planets have been 'altitude challenged' for me, < 20°. I did capture this Saturn recently with the C but the conditions were poor:

RAW8-320x240-1000x29ms-g71-22fps.png (20.91 KiB) Viewed 2961 times

I have no lunar with the C but I could try with it later this week if the weather holds and post back some lunar images. Search on www.astrobin.com https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=qhy5lii-c, some colour images turn up.

If you look at https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/ca ... l-ii-mono/, there is an M27 I captured with the M. At the bottom of the page are the camera specs. The M has a Quantum Efficiency of 74% which makes it a very capable imaging camera for lunar and smaller deep sky objects. I think the C's QE is somewhere around 50% but you would need to check the specs.

I have found the M more effective for lunar when used with an IR Cut/IR685/#25 red filter. The IR Cut also seems to help with start bloat.

Both cameras can be used for guiding - a look around astrobin will turn up that both are used for guiding.

Hope this helps.

If you use one of these as a guide cam then what would be your main camera?

Dave

[kuzby]

Hello Dave,
Thank you very much for your inspiring informaces. I’m thinking also about the problem of multiple short exposures versus smaller amount of longer exposures. The best way will be probably to try it with my equipment. I have EQ5 mount with both motors, but unfortunately it has great periodical error, so the times above cca 120 s are unuseable. That’s a reason I’m thinking about the guiding. The solving of this is shorter time and more snaps. I read good article regarding this subject: http://dslr-astrophotography.com/long-e ... exposures/ . Maybe you have read it, too.
My main camera is Canon EOS 400D unmodified, but I’m seeking for the better one, especially with the live view. Ideal for me seems to be Canon EOS 60Da, which need not to be modified, but it is not longer for sale, so used one would be good. The other solving is astro camera, of course. If it will be clear sky next weekend, I try some experiments with the exposures.
Regards
Zbynek

[turfpit]

Zbynek

I have had some success with a Canon 600D modded https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=turfpit+600D
. The M27 being my latest one. Note the exposure times I am using and these are all unguided.

This search on Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=canon+60Da will give you an idea of what the camera is capable of and the settings used to achieve the images.

The article is a heavy read but very informative.

I bought a used Celestron AVX mount for £500. This has proved a reasonable purchase when used with smaller scopes Altair 66ED refractor (2Kg) and Vixen 81s (3Kg). I have had up to 180s exposures and the M27 above was 100x60s (1h 40m integration time).
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1724

With my old Celestron CG5 mount I managed 60x60s unguided viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1466.

If I were to use my Celestron C8 for deep sky then I would need to go for guiding as the 5.5kg scope starts to approach the capacity of the mount.

I elected to concentrate on getting the basics of alignment and focusing right rather than introduce a layer of complexity with guiding. This strategy has worked for me. I will need guiding one day as I move on to LRGB and narrowband.

Have you considered trying Live Stacking as an alternative approach? A combination of short exposures and stacking may give you some acceptable results without additional expense.

If you have a look around my Astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/users/turfpit/ there are a variety of cameras and objects on display. I do try to include the capture process/settings.

Dave

[BlackWikkett]

My main camera is Canon EOS 400D unmodified, but I’m seeking for the better one, especially with the live view. Ideal for me seems to be Canon EOS 60Da, which need not to be modified, but it is not longer for sale, so used one would be good. The other solving is astro camera, of course. If it will be clear sky next weekend, I try some experiments with the exposures.
Regards
Zbynek

Even used the 60DA is still quite expensive compared to a much better performing dedicated cooled astronomy camera. Example USD 1000 gets you a IMX294 based color cooled astronomy camera. The uncooled version is about USD 600. The lowest priced 60DA I found was well over USD 1500. (just did a really quick google search this may well be found for much less) Just something to consider. The 294 based cameras are very flexible and I've been able to get some great results from these one shot color cameras.