Last days I have been preparing my wide field astroimaging setup. There have been some changes in conception and eventually I decided to give up on DSLR and purchase another QHY163 camera, but one shot color version. So I plan to fight twofold: any camera (mono with filter wheel or color) can work with any optics (130mm refractor or 135mm lens). Here is some first shots with Samyang 135 lens talking to QHY163M mono camera through Baader hydrogen alpha filter. Apparent field of view for the images below is pretty large, about 8 degrees. So more less the same as with popular 7x binoculars.
And here is wide field setup with mounted mono camera and filter wheel. It looks the same with color camera version, but instead of filter wheel there will be filter drawer for 2″ filter (UV/IR cut or IDAS LP). It is pretty heavy though, about 3.5kg, cannot sit on lightweight mount.
Despite the fact this setup is not ultra lightweight, this duet of Samyang 135 and QHY163M camera works for me already for three years (as in 2019) and proved it value well. You may check some of the images that I made at 2019 year summary page.
What kind of guider do you usually use with your qhy163m camera?
For wide field with Samyang 135 I use 50mm finderscope with QHY5 mono camera – it works very well. For main setup with QHY163M and TS130/910 refractor where pixel scale is about 1″/px 50mm guidescope is not enough with 8 bit CMOS camera. It worked somehow well with 16bit QHY6 as guiding camera, but I was not happy for it with ASI290MM – I described it at http://www.forumastronomiczne.pl/index.php?/topic/11307-si%C3%B3dme-poty-szukaczoguidera/ thread. Larger 60/240 guidescope should be fine, but currently I use oldie goldie 80/400 SW scope as guider with ASI290MM and it works now perfect.
Hi there, I like very much this assembly. What rings did you use to secure the lens and the camera to the dovetail? Also, do you focus manually? Is it easy at such small f ratios?
Hello! I used standard 76mm diameter rings – they fit to camera body, and for lens I needed to put inside one additional layer of 2mm cork layer. And yes, I focus manually. Focus ring works pretty smooth so it is quite convenient, however at the end there are only small touches required. But it is possible to focus very sharp when previewing image in magnified Live View or monitoring FWHM of single star.
Hello – very nice setup. What mount are you using for widefield imaging? Thank you.
Hello Dave,
Thanks! I use iOptron SmartEQ Pro, I wrote few more words about it here https://astrojolo.com/gears/smart-eq-pro-quick-review/
Happy New Year! 🙂
Hello, I would like to ask you how you managed to get QHY 163 + EFW to the right backfocus of the lens. Did you make special adapter between camera and EFW? What kind of bayonet adapter did you use? Thank you very much for your time!
Hello Michal,
I use QHY filter wheel with short adapter (you can find them at http://qhyccd.com/QHY163.html page – Table 2 at the bottom). Then I ordered custom adapter between lens and filter wheel. I unscrewed Canon bayonet from the lens, and the adapter was fixed to the lens with the same screws. At the other adapter end there is T2 male thread to filter wheel or anything else. I will add current setup pictures today evening to this blog entry.