QHYCCD’s newest planetary camera

FOR NEARLY TWO DECADES ‘lucky imaging’ has been the tried-and-true route to recording the most detailed images of the Sun, Moon and bright planets. Key to the technique’s success is the use of high-speed video cameras that record as many frames as possible in a short period, along with software to cull, register and stack the sharpest of them. The resulting images often show more details than can be gleaned with the eye alone. Best of all, it’s fairly easy to do it yourself.

QHYCCD, a Chinese manufacturer specialising in astronomical cameras for both deep sky and planetary imaging, recently announced a new high-speed model geared specifically to those with an interest in near-infrared imaging. The QHY5III462C is a colour CMOS camera with a 6th-generation, back-illuminated Sony IMX462 sensor, engineered with deeper photosites that permit greater sensitivity to the longer wavelengths of light found at the red and near-infrared end of the spectrum, between 800 and 1,000 nanometres. This has a few