Astroart Forum

Hi all,
here are some pictures about unboxing of QHY5-II cameras.
http://qhyccd.com/en/left/page3/qhy5-ii-series/
As you can see the camera is as big as an eyepiece and does not require power.
Two models are available, 5-II and 5L-II.
The 5L has a smaller CCD (4.8 x 3.6 mm instead of 6.6 x 5.3) but it has a better quantum efficency and lower noise, so it lets you guide on fainter stars, and is better for deepsky imaging. The cost is almost the same.
(By the way I'm "old school" and I usually prefer bigger sensors with lower sensibility. The choice is not easy, it depends also by your focal length).
In Astroart we suggest to use the ASCOM interface (a WDM driver is also available).
Just select "CMOS QHY5LII Camera" in the ASCOM chooser, then in "QHY Configuration" you may set the camera gain and the 12 bit mode.
Clear skies,
Fabio

Thanks for posting this Fabio! I have been thinking about upgrading from my QHY-5 to the QHY-5 II L for the Higher QE and 12 bit depth. I see from your post that 2x2 binning and the guide port are not supported in 12 bit mode so I think I'll pass on that camera ( I know you bought the QHY-5 II). As far as AstroArt is concerned are there any improvements in guiding with a 12 or 16 bit camera over an 8 bit camera?
-Iver

Well, some years ago 8 bits meant low quality and lot of noise, now these ccds are better, you can control the gain (just like in the 5L), 8 bits for autoguiding are not much worse than 12
(but this is a feeling, "If I don't measure, I don't know" - Galileo)