QHY5-II Series Cameras

QHYCCD followed up the success of the QHY5 Guiding Camera by introducing its newest series of Planetary & Guiding Cameras, the QHY5-II. These cameras advance the data transfer speed all the way to the maximum USB 2.0 data rate of 39 MB per second, 30 FPS @ 1280x1024, or 1280x960 on current computer systems, and hundreds of frames per second in particular ROI modes.

QHY5-II cameras fit in a common 1.25" eyepiece adapter and feature an adjustable location ring for confocal imaging with an eyepiece. Optimal for use as a light weight auto guider. The QHY5-II comes in a compact yet robust package. It has an improved thermal design that enables the heat produced by the CMOS sensor to be moved externally to the telescope's eyepiece tube.

This QHY5-II camera is equipped with both Native WDM and Broadcast WDM drivers. This means you can also utilize this camera as a superior, high-performance webcam for capturing video or presenting a live video broadcast to show off your astronomy images to your friends in real time!

QHY5L-II Color CMOS Camera & Autoguider

As with all QHY5-II cameras, the QHY5L-II sports high sensitivity and low noise. Many have found the image quality of the QHY5L-II to equal or even surpass that of cameras with a ICX618 sensor. Readout noise is incredibly low - as few as four electrons. The QHY5L-II contains a Aptina MT9M034 sensor with on-chip FPN (Fixed Pattern Noise) calibration capability, fixing one of the primary drawbacks of CMOS technology for images that are clear and consistent, even under high gain. With these assets, the QHY5L-II offers excellent image quality for imaging planets, deep-sky objects or for autoguiding. Also available in monochrome.

Planetary Imaging

With a frame rate range of between 30 and 200 frames, the QHY5L-II camera is an instrument best suited for capturing planetary images. Although high frame rates help reduce the amount of atmospheric agitation that influences the image, they also result in short exposure times.

Lunar Imaging

The QHY5L-II also makes achieving high resolution lunar images a simple task. Image stacking will result in highly detailed images of the lunar surface.

Deep Sky Imaging

Even though the QHY5L-II is not a cooled camera, it still has the capacity to take bright images of deep sky objects. This is especially true of small galaxies and planetary nebulae. Ordinarily, this can be done via short exposures and large quantity stacking. You may have to enable EZPlanetary's auto-dark frame subtract function to get concurrent dark frame calibration to eliminate the thermal noise on images with long exposure times. Please note you will need to reload the auto-dark frame calibration if you have altered the gain or exposure time.

AutoGuiding

The QHY5L-II is an acclaimed autoguiding camera. In 2015, QHY came out with a miniGuideScope made specifically for QHY5L-II cameras. This can be found in the accessories section at the bottom left of this page. The QHY5L-II is compact and lightweight, making it the perfect camera component of an ultra portable guide system. The monochrome version has a 74% high QE and you can locate the guide star anywhere.

Image depicts an orange version of the QHY5L-II Color CMOS Camera & Autoguider, which comes standard in silver.