Hi John. Further info re the new EMCCD cameras
the Andor EMCCD cameras are cooled to -95C
Edmond have a relatively low spec EMCCD camera in stock for $8500.
the gain mechanism slowly wears out and pixels also die in significant numbers as you use an EMCCD.
Unless you use photon counting, the additional noise from the amplification mechanism reduces the SNR and the gain mechanism also limits the effective well depth - if you have a gain of 100x, the effective well depth (in photon input terms) reduces to 1/100 its no-gain level.
So it's not all good news and there might be a bit of a wait for the new tech cameras to reach "hobby" levels of price and reliability - sigh. However, they should allow us to apply lucky imaging techniques to some DSOs as well as the dimmer solar system objects - that will be a great new area of entertainment for amateurs.
regards Ray
Last edited by Shiraz; 23-12-2012 at 04:26 PM.
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