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Originally Posted by kinetic
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Thanks for the links Steve - lots of reading there, and I'm a great believer in learning from the successes of others!
As ZeroID says - the ZWO cameras are an ideal candidate for this sort of hack - the aluminium body makes a great thermal interface between the sensor and the cold face of the TEC. Also, since they ship with an IR-cut filter (on the colour cameras, or clear glass on the monos), the sensor is inside an almost sealed enclosure, so I'm hoping there is very little risk of "frying" the electronics with unwanted moisture, but I'll put a silica desiccant pack inside anyway. I've had lots of dew dripping from my camera's body, but none on the sensor or IR-cut filter (so far).
The thing that got me onto this experimentation path is the drastic drop in price over the last year or so to acquire an entry-level astro-camera set-up. My total outlay so far:
. US$299 for the camera (ZWO ASI120MC) shipped to Brisbane, running off freeware software (once I finalize on a preferred software chain, I'll make a small donation to the developers of my preferred apps)
. AU$1.91 for the Peltier TEC (including postage)
. AU$29.00 for the GPU cooler
I already owned the 12 volt SLA battery that I'm using to power it, and everything else (cable connectors and cable ties, etc) came out of my "box of bits".
At those prices, I could easily afford to buy the camera, and even take a bit of a risk in tinkering with it.