QHY5l-ii mono or colour and gama electronics

[acarleton (Aidan)]

Hi all

i am looking to get the QHY5l-ii autoguider to enable me to take longer exposures of DSO's but i also wanted to use it as a planetary imager. my question is, should i get the mono or the colour? what are the pros and cons? why is the mono more expensive? if i get the mono then i will have to buy additional filters to pull together a colour image of the planets. Finally, has anyone bought off gama electronics before? seems like a guy who set up a website and is selling these cameras, i wanted to make sure it is on the up and up.

i am looking to get it this weekend so any help would be appreciated.

[pluto (Hugh)]

I got my QHY5L-II colour from Gama for the same reasons you cite. The mono would have been better for guiding but it is handy having the colour for quick planetary/lunar/solar imaging. Plus I never really had a problem guiding with the colour anyway though I was using a guidescope and not an OAG.

If you do get the mono you will need to get filters, and probably a filter wheel, if you want to do colour images of planets etc.

Gama was good to deal with, Theo is very knowledgeable about the products he sells.

[acarleton (Aidan)]

Thanks Hugh

Why is the mono better for guiding? and i don't get why it would be more expensive, it seems counter intuitive

Thanks

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Well the colour uses a bayer matrix laid on top of a mono sensor using RGB to make one pixel.

Mono, each pixel records a value thus by sensitivity alone the mono should be 3x more sensitive given same pixel matrix. Thus a mono is more sensitive for finding guide stars.

When guiding you don't require colour information just mono pixels.

But if you want to use your guide camera as a planetary camera, then you will need filters, where as for a colour camera does not. There is a whole lot more to it than this suffice to say this is a start.

[acarleton (Aidan)]

is sensitivity mainly of concern when dealing with guiding? given that planets are fairly bright then they don't need a high sensitivity, i am assuming. also if i lay RGB filtered mono images ontop of each other, am i going to get a greater resolution, picking up finer detail than the colour version?

Thanks for the help

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Sensitivity is key for guiding, finding guide stars, expecially with off axis guiders. I don't think (never have) guiding is necessary for planetary imaging.

Resolution is better with a mono sensor as guide software can detect a 1 pixel change and a colour pixel is RGB where in a mono = 1 pixel.

[traveller (Bo)]

As Brendan said, the colour model has less sensitivty due to the bayer matrix.
This is the link to the QHY website.
I am looking at a colour one as I am after planetary imaging first and guiding second.
Cheers,
Bo

[scagman (John)]

Hi Acarleton,

Can't add to the mono/color debate, but big up for gama electronics.
Very helpfull if you have any questions or problems.

Cheers

[acarleton (Aidan)]

But wouldn't the mono be better for planetary as well or are you not wanting to get filters

Originally Posted by traveller

As Brendan said, the colour model has less sensitivty due to the bayer matrix.
This is the link to the QHY website.
I am looking at a colour one as I am after planetary imaging first and guiding second.
Cheers,
Bo