QHY 600PH-M

After months of trying to erradicate low-level horizontal banding noise in my QHY600M
the cause of this low level noise seems to be, the read-out mode used.

QHY allow the camera to be read in several modes, some seductively
offering extended full well capacity.

Banding typically only becomes noticable with low signal, low surface
brightness objects, as is often the case when using narrow-band filters.

Tthe above images are the result of 12x dark subtracted, 300 second frames
of the Helix nebula, taken with a Takahashi EDXIII F5 refractor.

Sub frames were registered then median combined with PixInsight with sigma pixel rejection.

Photo mode, then Extended full well (EFW) mode was used for each sequence.

Adjusting USB traffic from zero to 60 caused little difference in the noise/banding of the EFW mode.

Photo mode remained remarkably clean and free of any banding and
will be my mode of choice for low flux targets.

 

All images and text copyright Peter J Ward 2023.

Can you see all 26 grey scales above?