QHY8L Cooled Color Astronomy CCD Camera User Manual QHY8L User Manual V1.
QHY8L CCD Camera User Guide CONTENTS 1)SAFETY PRECAUTIONS--------------------------------------------------------------------------2 2)STANDARD EQUIPMENT-----------------------------------------------------------------------3 3) SEPARATELY SOLD ACCESSORIES---------------------------------------------------------5 4)CAMERA STRUCTURE AND INTERFACE CONNECTION------------------------------6 5)CAMERA DRIVERS INSTALLATION AND QUICKLY MASTERING -------------------7 6) DC201 IINPUT VOLTAGE RANGE-------------------
STANDARD EQUIPMENT Make sure that the following items are included in your camera package. If anything is missing, contact the retailer from which you purchased the camera.
Camera Interface Accessories Sold Separately (Contact your dealer for pricing and ordering information) 1 100-240V TO 12V AC adapter 3 4 1 1：Camera Front Part 2：CCD Chamber Air socket 3：M42/0.
Camera Software Installation 1 Please download last QHY8L system driver from http://www.qhyccd.com/download.html (WINUSB 64/32version) This version support windowsXP,windowsVista and windows 7, 64 and 32bit version. 2 Run installer。 3 Connect the camera to computer with USB calbe. 8 Connect DC201 with 12V input. The LED of DC201(+15,-15.+5) should be on 9 Download EZCAP software from http://www.qhyccd.com/download.Html Click “scan camera” from main menu. The QHY8L will be highlight. Check it on.
DC201 Input Voltage Range The DC201 requires a regulated 12V input. The normal input range is 11V-13V. If you exceed 13V- common when you are using an external battery, the higher voltage will reduce the life of the TEC and Fan. If you exceed 13V, please limit the maximum power of your Cooling Settings. This can be controlled via“TEC PROTECT” in the“Favorite” menu of EZCAP. Please select it. If you are using the ASCOM driver, this has been set automatically. QHY8L’s power is from 3.
Dew is formed on the IR cut glass 3. Screw silica gel tube into the connection of the sealed chamber. Make sure the rubber O-Ring is present to ensure an airtight connection. 4. In about 24 hours, the proper relative humidity should be restored in the CCD sealed chamber If you need to dry the chamber faster, you can use the following method: If the cooling temperature is too low in a high humidity environment, the CCD optic window may collect dew. This is because the temperature of the window is too low.
You should shut off all power after you are finished using your CCD. If the camera is still on (via USB), any ice crystals around CCD chip will melt which can corrupt or short-circuit the PCB board. 13 Notes about Long term use camera and Remote Observatory If you have to keep the camera working for a long time or the camera is working in a remote observatory, please follow the following procedures, and we recommend that you consult your area dealer for more details. 1.
QHY8L CCD Chip Read-out Mode and Image Calibration. QHY8L CCD has a 2 channels / 2 frames chip. There are several things you need to pay attention to during the shooting and image process. The first frame read out the B&Gb pixels, the second frame read out the R&Gr pixels. When the 1st frame has exposed done, and it is reading out, the 2nd frame is keep exposing. Thus the 2 frames will get a different expose time. QHY8L uses 2 modes to get the solution. When the expose time is short (less than 1.
About controlling for BLOOMING QHY8L CCD chip have the -100dB antioverflow foundation. Anti-overflow capacity is slightly lower than QHY8L of-100dB. So there is possible to overflow for shooting very bright target. For the overflow problem of SONY CCD chip, please install mechanical shutter to solve. If mechanical shutter is indeed necessary, please consult QHYCCD or your area dealer. The method of avoiding thermal shock is this: To avoid reaching maximum power of cooler when booting machine.
Clean the surface of CCD chip If dust coats the surface of the CCD-it will impact the your images and possible create “dust donuts” and other artifacts. If there is only a small amount of dust, we suggest just using flat fields calibration to remove them. Cleaning tips 3. Blow at CCD in a breath and use lens paper to clean the CCD surface. Make sure to maintain an appropriate pressure for CCD with your hand. 4. Finish cleaning and reinstall the front cover of CCD.
Setting the GAIN and OFFSET Unlike many other manufacturers, QHYCCD leaves the the internal settings of the camera ADC GAIN and OFFSET settings so that you can get the absolute best performance out of your CCD. GAIN is the pre-ADC programmable gain amplifier gain setting, the range is from 0 to 63. OFFSET is the ADC voltage offset setting.
QHY8L mechanical dimensions QHY8L back focus distance The back focus length of QHY8L is 20mm, as shown without the center and angle adjustment ring. If you connect the center and angle adjustment ringthe rear cut-off distance will increase by about 3mm.
Simple first light Using the Center and Angle Adjustment Ring 1 2 3 4 Although QHY8L is supported by many 3rd party software, we still suggest you strongly to use the software distributed with the CCD----EZCAP. Especially when you are first using the QHY8L. EZCAP will be able to correctly verify your camera being able to work regularly or not. There is a M42/0.75 thread on the QHY8L, which can connect directly with the telescope.
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Click the Live Preview option. This lets you achieve a continuous preview. We recommend select the shorter exposure time (100-500ms) for obtaining faster preview speeds. Adjust the lens or the telescope focus and get the a shape image. Stop Live Preview Select a good star point or target in the image area using the left click of the mouse. Open the FOCUS column. Click the FOCUS button to get a focus image. Adjust Histogram of gray column to choose the appropriate range.
EZCAP can control temperature manually or automatically for the QHY8L camera. Choose Temperature Control from the Setup menu. There are three temperature control options in the window. TEC OFF, Manual and Auto Control. TEC OFF will turn the cooler of the camera off immediately. Manual will adjust the power % of the cooler. It can be adjusted by the PWM regulation section on the left. The range of regulation is from 0% to 100%.
MAXIMDL ASCOM Connection Mode 1 2 3 4 5 Steps Please download the latest version of the ASCOM Platform from http://ascom-standards.org/. Install ASCOM and ALSO download any UPDATE that is available. http://www.qhyccd.com/download.html download and install the ASCOM driver of QHY8L。 Run MAXIMDL software. Select the camera icon in the toolbar. The Camera Control window should appear. Press Setup Camera button inside this window. Select ASCOM from the menu of Camera Mode.
AstroART ASCOM Connection Mode 8 9 10 Changes from the above steps number 8: Set the merge mode with X and Y ,like choose X=1,Y=same. Press the button of Start to exposure and shoot . Soon image will be showed in form of RAW which are still grayscale image. Select Convert Color from Color menu belong to MAXIMDL,set OFFSET,X=0,Y=0 On Convert Color menu. Choose Generic RGB from the dropdowns box of Select Camera. On the window of Preview check if the color is right. And then click OK .
5 6 7 8 9 If the camera of QHY8L is connected successfully, AART will show the window of temperature control. Please set Target as what you want to be required value of temperature. There has a Setting column which is located the window of CCD. Please select pixel merge mode. Set the exposure time under the window of CCD. Click the button of START and shoot a image.
The Calibration Principle of CCD Image Calibrated image=[(L-B)-(D-B)]/(F-B)=(L-D)/(F-B) There, L is the actual shooting image, D represents the Dark Frame images, B represents BIAS image and F means the FLAT image. Note: In most cases, there maybe appear some Vertical stripes in the image which is formed by lots of BIAS or DARK image stacked. This is normal. There will not appear such Vertical stripes after this image is calibrated. Capture BIAS Image BIAS image means exposure time of images is Zero.
Partial Cropped DARK Image (D) DARK image which be calibrated by BIAS Field （D-B） 39 Capture FLAT Image FLAT image can be used to rectify the problem of the center light but the edge dark which caused by the vignette of optical system. It also can be corrected the problem due to some small dust on the CCD sensor glass surface. Flat-field calibration method is this: you need uniform luminous lightbox. The lightbox will be placed in front of the telescope.
Guiding by using QHY8L in MAXim DL QHY8L contains a guiding spot, it can be used as a guiding ccd with ASCOM. QHY8L uses 1*1 bin and normal download speed default. It can use subframe mode to guide. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 41 Connect the QHY8L and the equatorial mount’s guide spot.
