First test with QHYminiCam8

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

I tested yesterday evening the very compact miniCam8 from QHY.
I mounted it with the reducer-corrector on my Newton 10" FD4 reduced to ~ FD3.
It was impressive to see what it is possible today with the CMOS camera and new software in only 10 minutes (20 exposures of 30 s).
I like the simplicity ... so ... no dark, no flat, no processing ... only the hot-cold pixel correction from SharpCap with the live view histogram stretch .
And ... no guiding ... only the SharpCap live stacking activated with sigma clipping.

Here the H-alpha image reimported in SharpCap without new processing.
It is the region near the Sadr star in Cygnus.
On the right side of the image ... some reflexion is visible from the Sadr star. I "upgrade" the camera with black material and Musou black paint.
I hope it will reduce these reflexions. Or it comes from the gold contacts direct from the chip itself ... that will be more difficult to reduce.

QHYminiCam8_Ha_test_Newton.jpg (737.2 KiB) Viewed 1350 times

Regards,
Jean-Francois

[admin]

Hi Jean-Francois,

that's come out very well - as you say, a great image for such a simple configuration.

Looking at the bright patch on the right about half way up - is it really a reflection? It reminds me of the 'amp glow' patterns that were common on the right of the sensor for the IMX183 and IMX294 sensors (and probably others). Does it show up in darks? I have a QHY585C here - will have a test with longer exposures and see if I see any such glow.

cheers,

Robin

[admin]

Hi,

unfortunately my 585C is uncooled, so it is not a straight comparison, but I let SharpCap stack dark frames with no alignment for half an hour and definitely got some glow at the sides, with more on the right. No real 'starbust' glow like on the 183 though.

Screenshot 2026-08-10 101113.jpg (556.82 KiB) Viewed 1320 times

cheers,

Robin

[Jean-Francois]

Hello Robin,

Thanks for the idea of the detector glow. But the "585" sensor does not have this glow.

Here a quick LRGB image ... you can see that the reflexion is much more visible.
It is coming from the Sadr star. Yesterday evening, I moved the telescope in the east-west directions and the reflexion was changing and then disappeared and then the star was visible on the image. Coming night, I will check if my upgrade change something or not.

It can really be a reflexion on the gold contact on the side of the sensor.

QHYminiCam8_Ha_test_Newton_LRGB.jpg (801.95 KiB) Viewed 1307 times

Regards,
Jean-Francois

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

Concerning the star ghost/reflexion ... I tested again after modifying a little bit the camera ... I placed 4 pieces of Fineshut Kiwami (thin black foam) on the 4 sides of "heater" and I painted the other parts with Musou Black paint.
The result ... very positive with no visible ghost/reflexion of the Sadr star with the same image framing. I checked with small telescope movements.

Yesterday I was very positive surprised ... I never see before so good results with my Newton 10" telescope
Here 3 Live Stack of 15x one minute exposure (900s total).

Live Stack without everything (no dark, no flat, no guiding, no processing or enhancement or filter).
Only used the Hot/Cold Pixel removal and the Sigma Clipping. The final PNG image only a little bit contrast and light modified with PaintShopPro.
The images are saved in JPG and 80% reduced for < 1 MB size.

This evening I tested the Linearity HDR mode ... it is nice but a little bit more difficult to set the histogram.

OK here the images, first OIII ...

Stack_15frames_900s_O.jpg (833.78 KiB) Viewed 1266 times

and H-alpha ...

Stack_15frames_900s_Ha.jpg (806.61 KiB) Viewed 1266 times

and then S ...

Stack_15frames_900s_S.jpg (808.94 KiB) Viewed 1266 times

So ... I can say that the SHO filters of the miniCam8 are working properly

Best regards,
Jean-Francois

[admin]

Hi Jean-Francois,

yes, the newest generation of sensors like the IMX571 or 585 are very forgiving of 'simple' capture - very little true thermal noise, etc. Add to that the relatively small size of the IMX585, and you tend to avoid too much need for flats (little/no vignetting). We can sometimes forget that darks and flats are *not* a fundamental requirement for DSO imaging - they are a way to deal with specific camera/optical system flaws and get decent images anyway.

Glad to see that the images have come out so well

cheers,

Robin

[Jean-Francois]

Hello,

and now with more colours ... SHO processing with the AstroWizard software.
I used the trial BlurXTerminator und NoiseXTerminator.

I'm very surprise how simple it is with the AStroWizard software.

Here SHO image from each 15 frames for total 15 minutes exposure ...

NGC6992_15frames_900s_SHO_small.jpg (904.51 KiB) Viewed 1208 times

Regards and have a nice weekend,
Jean-Francois