QHY5iii585c Planetary Camera Review

[@TexasEngineerScotty]

Thanks Damien!

[@damienk2372]

No problem mate I hope you got something out of it👍 Damo

[@craiglowery4427]

I agree. Great camera. I used the ZWO version a few nights ago to capture Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune through my 14". I also downloaded the new AS!4. I enjoy your channel

[@damienk2372]

Thanks so much Craig, that is nice of you to say. Glad you are liking it.

Hi Damien, great job on the channel. I recently bought the camera and I was surprised that it gets excessively hot when you reach high fps. I have not observed this either in ASI 585mc or in Uranus-C. Have you observed the same effect?

[@damienk2372]

Hi Raull, Thanks for watching the video, I have not observed that in my time with the camera and found it to be a good camera. What are you doing with it when it gets hot, are you doing solar imaging possibly? There has been nights where I capture 50+ videos end to end with a few second break in between and I have never noticed being nothing but warm. I'd take out a ticket with QHY or the shop you purchased from and tell them that you think your version is faulty as mine does not do this. Hope this helps Damo

@@damienk2372 Thanks for the quick answer. No, I just tested the camera next to my computer with Sharpcap without telescope. I measured the temperature with a common thermometer and it read 37.7 degrees Celsius. I have talked to two other friends who have the same camera and it has the same effect on them. Try capturing at 100fps at 640x480px with USB3 to see the effect. This did not happen to me with ASI585 and Uranus-C. I will continue looking for answers. Thanks a lot Damien

[@damienk2372]

@RaulHussein @RaulHussein Hi Raul, when you said "excessively hot" I was thinking 60 or 70 degrees. I am unable to test mine at this moment but that doesn't sound unreasonable. And you will probably find the other OEM's are similar in the temp of the sensor but they effectively use the unit as a heat sync and your hand never gets close to the sensor as it buried in the body. The QHY varients however has a much more streamlined profile that adds flexibility in regards to positioning in use. So less of the body can be used as a shield for the heat from the sensor to your hand. I do have no technical knowledge of the cameras in this regard but these are my general thoughts and I don't think 37 degrees will be detrimental in the case of a planetary camera but those temps on a DSO came would be worry some. See how you go, I will try and get my camera and laptop out soon. Damo

[@damienk2372]

Hi Raul, I am back, with good news or bad news however you feel like taking it. I have done the same testing as you 640x480 but i went for full FPS so had an exposure of 1ms to max out the camera and was getting 175-180fps and just letting it run. 70,000 frames later my camera was 38 degrees the same as yours (measured with Pixel 8 Pro). I did this twice, once with Sharpcap and once with Firecapture. Interestingly Sharpcap started writing frames to memory on and off at around 30k frames but Firecapture never dropped a frame during its 70,000 frame run? Settings were the same as far as i can tell. Anyway hope that helps, everything you see on the channel shot with the QHY5iii585c was imaged with a camera exactly the same as the one you own by the looks of it with my testing. All the best Damo

[@gerryvaldez654]

Thanks Damien, this was very helpful. Will seriously consider this when I change up from my asi224mc.

[@damienk2372]

Gerry thankyou mate for the comment thats great to hear the information helped you. Dont hesitate to reply for any other questions All the best Damien

[@dalefife9854]

Damien, I just noticed this video in my quest for diving into EAA. I just completed a 12.5" F/4.8 Dobsonian, soon to be on an Equatorial Platform. I'm curious what your thoughts are on my scope (FL 1524mm) related to this camera (?) Would appreciate any advice you can offer. Thanks!

[@damienk2372]

Hi mate, That's a great scope and numbers look good. You will be able to do some nice imaging with a scope of this size. The camera is a favourite and the QHY or PlayerOne variant will be a great addition. Image train for planetary to best optimise the camera/scope combo should probably be something like a celestron 2.5x "2 Barlow and Zwo ADC with one of the 585 cameras. I have this combo and it gives me 3.7x magnification which will mean F18+ for the scope which is pretty close to where you want to be. And for DSO imaging I love the Nexus Coma corrector 0.75 reducer, more than likely the "collarless" version. This version will be able to be inserted into the focuser further to ensure you find focus. All this cost money mate so just pick and choose and good luck. Damo

[@dalefife9854]

@@damienk2372 I really appreciate your extertise on this and the fact that you have used a similar telescope arrangement. I've had the primary mirror in storage for over 15 years! as we just moved too much to get serious about completing the project. I recently retired from my engineering career and completed the scope a few days ago. I had the scope out a couple nights ago for a look at the Moon without any filter/s and "moon burned" my eye. The view was amazing at 250X so my concerns over having the mirror in storage for so long were unwarranted. I'm looking forward to diving into imaging and again, thanks for the reply and information!

[@Si-fp2ij]

Great review Damo Well done 👍🏻

[@damienk2372]

Thankyou mate I hope it helped👍

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

Hi Damien, l just check and compare the 200M to the 585c. I also view your clip again and again. Thanks a lot for your review. But now which of the two will you choose for just auto guiding and why? Please advise.

[@damienk2372]

Hi Simeon, they are both the latest design of cameras and I'm sure the 200m is very good as well as I have not used it yet. But unfortunately I can't help you here on an auto guiding question between these 2 cameras because I actually don't do it at all. Cloudy nights should give you an answer and reasoning for it. All the best Damien

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

Do you use a USB Hub to power up your Qhy5lll585C camera to your laptop or Computer. What Power volt & am do you recommend???

[@damienk2372]

No Simeon, my personal use is camera goes directly into laptop. At the data rate they capture you will loose to many frames if it is through a hub.

[@craiglowery4427]

Damian: You seem to prefer the QHY cameras. Why is that?

[@damienk2372]

Hi Craig, When I first started learning about planetary imaging the QHY 462C was the brand new kid on the block as far as cameras go. I got some really good images with the QHY462C and QHYCCD the company got in contact with me and did an interview (which is still on the site). I like the cameras they work really well and I've had minimal problems with them. Also with their 1.25 barrel design offer flexibility with image scale, as the closer the sensor is to the Barlow the less magnification it generates and the further away it is the more you can achive. I currently have 2x PlayerOne cameras the Neptune cii and the Mars 462 mono camera. They are both excellent cameras as well. I've never tried zwoasi camera yet. 🙂

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

What do you think about the Qhy5iii174M/C ?

[@anata5127]

You could try a camera with imx432 sensor. There is even cooling version of that. Takes up to 1000nm. Large sensor and massive 9um pixels. For your scope, it will be perfect.

[@damienk2372]

Sounds like a plan👌

[@anata5127]

@@damienk2372 I got this camera from RisingCam for tiny planetary nebulas. I would like to try imaging like planets, but video will be 30-90 min long and frames 200-600 ms. Let’s see how it will work.

[@damienk2372]

Hi, For some reason this message gave me no notification. For planetary you shouldd set your exposure time to 10 ms and then use your gain to lift your histogram to a 75-80% maximum, then record for 3 minutes at a time. Hope this helps Damo

[@anata5127]

@@damienk2372 Are you writing to my message? It was about pixel size of camera, nothing to do with exposure time. Second, it is about planetary nebulas, which are DSO objects. Your system ain’t going to handle DSO imaging.

[@damienk2372]

I missed that part OK, I thought you were talking about getting into planetary. I am in the middle of replying to about 30 replies that I wasn't notified about. Are the dobs ideal for dso imaging "no" will it stop me doing it? Definitely not, 10 years ago only a very small percentage of imagers were using dobs for planetary. I look forward to the challenge, just picked up a Starizona Nexus 0.75 reducer /corrector. 24 inches aperture at 1515mm FL sound interesting to me. All the best, apologies for the late reply. Damo

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

Am having a problem in connecting to sky X software

[@damienk2372]

I have no experience with sky x Simeon unfortunately so I cannot help🤔

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

What do you think about the Qhy5iii174 ?😅

[@damienk2372]

Gday Simeon thanks for the question, I will answer this with planetary in mind the 174 has some good features going for it like a global shutter, big pixels for larger fullwell capacity and stops of dynamic range as well as a very nice full chip frame rate of 130+ fps. But for me and my set up and i suspect the large majority of imagers the desired F ratio for this size pixel is (5x pix 5.8um=29) F29 which would mean on my 16" id need a 5x barlow + ADC then camera and be shooting at over 11600mm of FL which would be tricky to say the least and for the 24" id need probably a 7x barlow just to reach an ideal pixel scale. So as you could imaging i havent fully concidererd or used the 174M or C. Now if you have a Schmidt-Cassegrain type of scope eg. long native FL then things while still tricky start to make more sense. Because with a 2.5x barlow + ADC you are pretty close to the F29 mark. So bottom line is while i am sure good images will still be attainable with the 174M or C for you with this camera, its more suited to the langer focal length scopes and is less flexible in the longh run with pixels of this size. If you did a little DSO work this size pixel would be ok for my 16" and pretty close to spot on for my 10" dob (0.65 vs 0.97 arc sec per pixel), another positive. Utimately for me and planetary i would go for the newer technology because it's moving so fast and a pixel size that is a little more friendly to me. Did this help at all? Damien

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

Thanks, any way l have the skywatcher Esprit 120ed with a FL of 840. I am thinking of using it for both imaging as well as on my guide scope Evoguide 50ED. What do you think? Advise.

[@damienk2372]

@@simeonwelbeck3805 174 = good pixel size for DSO imaging which you probably already knew with that scope but would they be too big as a guider? Planetary with the 174 you would need a 3.5x + ADC to reach desired scale. Compared to the 2.9um of the 585c it would leave you still in the desirered DSO range (bottom end @ 0.71arc sec/ pix) and you could meet/exceed the planetary image scale with a 2x barlow + ADC probably but have more light to play with eg. less gain and more easily of able to take advantage of poor conditions due to smaller pixels. Guiding would probably be better too with the smaller pixel size but i am probably getting out of my comfort zone here with me more or less guessing here. If planetary is not your thing then i think the 174 is a pretty good fit but if you have started with planetary and find your having more fun with it i would probably lean to the smaller pixeled newer 585c. Hope i haven't opened more boxes here haha Damien

[@simeonwelbeck3805]

The 585c only comes in color version. Can l use that as a guide camera as well as a imager on my guide scope for both planetary and deep sky instead of the 174M. Am yet to buy my main camera for the Esprit 120. Will the 585c be able handle both planetary and deep sky guiding as well as imaging planetary with my guiding scope (Evoguide 50ED). Color vs monochrome. What’s the advantage? Advise

[@damienk2372]

@@simeonwelbeck3805 I would have thought it was a yes to all of those questions above but your questions sugest to me that someone or somewhere you may have heard different so maybe head over to cloudy nights and ask the question there and people with guiding experiance will help even if it it just a matter of mono being better.👌If you are thinking of imaging in mono it opens up more questions and cost eg. filters to image through for R,G,B + Luminance Colur vs Mono = a much simpler work flow post captures (-50% of the work) for planetary.