QHY5 and Software

[Carole]

Following on from Mark's thread on his Lunt solar image, some quotes:

Mark, you say you used the QHY5 for this.  Do you have the QHY5 that doubles as a planetary camera i.e. the QHY5V?  

I have the basic QHY5 and Sharpcap doesn't recognise it even though the drivers are installed on the laptop so I assumed it was not intended for planetary work.  

Carole

Mark's reply

I used the QHY5 because it's the only mono CCD I have.  It's the basic QHY5 and used their own QVideo capture software.   

I didn't like QVideo very much so I'll see if I can use an alternative.

Mark

[Carole]

Then Duncan's reply

Update SharpCap. The QHY5 has a native mode using the QVideo software and an ASCOM driver. The ASCOM driver should be recognised by the latest SharpCap.

OK, I have found the Qvideo software it it works on that, but it doesn't seem to have controls I am familiar with. 
So might take a bit of playing around with.

It also apparently will work with Nebulosity (I only have a free version), it seems to accept the camera OK as an Ascom camera, but can't seem to get a live view performance and thus a response to light and dark, so not sure if that is working properly.

I have installed the latest version of Sharpcap and it still doesn't recognise the camera.  I think I will E Mail Robin who wrote it and see what he says.

I have a webcam but just wanted to see how this would work on solar system stuff. 

Carole

[The Thing]

Carole, did you turn up the gain in the QHY ASCOM settings dialog? By default it's 50% but you need 98%-100% to see stars.

[Carole]

I was just doing it in the living room by holding the camera up to the computer screen and then putting the lens cap on just to get a reaction of light.  Worked with Qvideo, didn't work with Nebulosity, no camera recognised in Sharpcap latest version.

Carole

[Carole]

This is the reply I got from Robin the author of Sharpcap:

The qhy5 will only work currently with sharpcap using the ascom driver.  You'll need to install ascom platform 6.1 and also the qhy ascom driver.  Hopefully it will then work, although the qhy ascom driver is a little quirky.

Need to check which Ascom platform I have, I just installed the Ascom drivers that came with the QHY5.
If I can't get it working I'll just have to have a go with QVideo.

Carole

[MarkS]

The qhy5 will only work currently with sharpcap using the ascom driver.  You'll need to install ascom platform 6.1 and also the qhy ascom driver.  Hopefully it will then work, although the qhy ascom driver is a little quirky.

Need to check which Ascom platform I have, I just installed the Ascom drivers that came with the QHY5.
If I can't get it working I'll just have to have a go with QVideo.

Hmmm....
Just tried this - downloaded SharpCap and ASCOM 6.1
Sharpcap then found the QHY5 but did not save an AVI file but a series of FITS image files - very slow - about one FITS file per second.  Think I'll go back to QVideo.

The QHY5 site indicates that they will be writing some WDM drivers which means the QHY5 could be used like a webcam.  Then any capture software could be used.

Mark

[Carole]

Thanks Mark.

Points noted.

Carole

[Carole]

I finally got around to trying out the QHY5 and QGvideo.  Got it working but the quality of image is not great.  The controls are not exactly intuitive although I managed to suss them out eventually.

I tried this with my ST80 and extension piece as I do guiding with this set up so know the QHY5 works on this.

I am not impressed with the quality of the image which has vertical lines on it (and this is sharpened a few times).
This is what I took (a stacked AVI) of the aerial on the house opposite.  

What do your QHY5 stacked AVIs look like Mark and any-one else that uses it?

[MarkS]

Yep I tried the QHY5, on the Lunt, it looked like this:
http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2012/sun_09062012v3.jpg

[RobertM]

That's one too shabby

[Carole]

Well yours has come out OK Mark, what software were you using?

QGVideo doesn't have many controls to tweak things.

Carole

[MarkS]

Well yours has come out OK Mark, what software were you using?
QGVideo doesn't have many controls to tweak things.

I didn't like QGVideo but I was forced to use it because the QHY5 doesn't have the drivers to allow it to be used in "standard" Windows video softward.

Mark

[The Thing]

Well yours has come out OK Mark, what software were you using?
QGVideo doesn't have many controls to tweak things.

I didn't like QGVideo but I was forced to use it because the QHY5 doesn't have the drivers to allow it to be used in "standard" Windows video softward.

Mark

If you have the Ascom driver install any software that will use an Ascom camera (e.g APT when it hits version 2 in a week or so) will work with it...

[Carole]

(e.g APT when it hits version 2 in a week or so) will work with it...

Ah ha, I am trialing the beta APT CCD software so I already have it.  I'll give it a try.
Having said that though, is APT going to support videos, or just CCD LX imaging?? Will have to take a look. 

Anyway, when I tried the beta version (1.9), it crashed as soon as I asked it to start capturing, so obviously some gremlins in that which I have reported back.

Carole

[The Thing]

I would think that the Planetary button will take videos as it does for Digic IV DSLRs but I am not sure.