Lodestar vs QHY5 LII

[johnnyt123 (John)]

This may have been covered before but I didn't find anything when I did a search in IIS.

I have been reading mixed reviews on either where some give the edge to the lodestar and others give it to the QHY5 LII.

But what I want to ask is if anyone has used either or has any experience with either and what their personal thoughts are on their use as guide cams and which one is better.

I am looking at purchasing a new guide cam and with the QHY5-LII at less than half the price of the lodestar I am leaning towards it. But I would like to get people's opinion on them first.

Thanks.

John

[phomer (Paul)]

John,

I haven't any experience with the QHY camara, but I have experience with the Lodestar.

It is powered from the USB and has a relatively large sensor with very low noise. It is also very small and able to be used in a 1.25 inch focuser if required. Normally it is attached with c-mount.

I can only say it is has worked very well for me and never given me any problems.

Paul

[E_ri_k (Erik)]

My Lodestar is ultra sensitive. I back what Paul said. Great and compact and no problems. It is a bit expensive, I agree, but worth it I think.
Erik

[johnnyt123 (John)]

Thanks Paul a Erik

I have heard the lodestar is a great guidecam.

So no one out there has any experience with the QHY5 LII as a guide cam?

[Manav (Yugant)]

not sure what approach you will take for guiding I.e. Guidescope or off axis. If it is off axis you may want to check camera profiles. Lodestar is quite slim and doesn't get in the way. Not to mention sensitive enough to pick stars....

[budman1961 (Andrew)]

I use a QHY5L-II Mono as a guide cam, and it does an excellent job. Quite a bit more sensitive than the previous QHY5 I was using before. I use it with the Orion 50mm finder.

Andy

[johnnyt123 (John)]

The guide cam will be used on an off axis guider that is integrated with QSI 683wsg-8 which I will be purchasing soon.

I currently use a Stellarvue 70mm ED carbon fiber f6 as my guide scope. I was even considering running 2 guide scopes incase there aren't any guide stars in either of the scopes.

Judging by the reviews and the price tag I am leaning towards the qhy5 LII

[RobF (Rob)]

Originally Posted by budman1961

I use a QHY5L-II Mono as a guide cam, and it does an excellent job. Quite a bit more sensitive than the previous QHY5 I was using before. I use it with the Orion 50mm finder.

Andy

How are you finding the noise level and hot pixels versus the QHY5 Andy?

[johnnyt123 (John)]

Are hot pixels with the QHY5L-II a real issue when it comes to autoguiding.

This from what I have been reading is the main issue as to why the CCD sensor in the Lodestar is superior to the CMOS sensor in the QHY5L-II.

Can anyone elaborate on that?

[rmuhlack (Richard)]

I have just purchased a QHY5L-II to use with an OAG on my Vixen VC200L (having previously used a QHY5 and a guidescope). I am still waiting on a Precise Parts adapter so I can attach the OAG to the Vixen drawtube, so when I've had a chance to test the system out I'll report back on how it performs

[naskies (Dave)]

There was a CloudyNights thread recently where some guy measured the relative sensitivity of the two guide cams.

The conclusion was that the QHY5L-II is noticeably more sensitive than the Lodestar per unit area, but because the Lodestar's pixels are 4.9x larger the Lodestar is more sensitive overall. Since the QHY's binning is supposedly only performed in firmware (i.e. not true CCD-style binning), it doesn't get exceed the Lodestar's sensitivity even in 2x2 mode.

I suppose it comes down to what focal length you're imaging at. If it's say 400 mm, then the QHY will probably give you better sampled guide stars, but at 2500 mm then you'd probably want the Lodestar for its sensitivity and pixel size.

[RobF (Rob)]

Hot pixels are definitely there with my SSAG (same hardware as QHY5), but master dark handles very effectively (in Maxim).

[Meru (Michael)]

+1 for Dave's comments, at short FL (with an OAG) then a QHY5-L2 would be fine. However once you start to get to the 1000mm+ ranges (For example, my RC8) then a lodestar is simply the best. It's all about getting the right imaging scale (arc-sec/pixel), if its too small then you would struggle to get enough light to get stars. On my RC8 at 1600mm I never have pointed the scope anywhere with less than atleast 5 guidestars. This is with a 2sec integration. I would be quite curious to see how well a QHY would do, might borrow my friend's and have a trial.

As a side note one issue I am facing is the different in imaging scale between my guide & imaging camera. My QHY9 has 5.4um pixels vs 8.2um for the lodestar. So unless I have perfect PA, small corrections via the webcam actually show up on my imaging camera. Something small but important to keep in mind in your quest!