How cool is an FLI camera?

[Geoff45]

I recently took delivery of a Proline16803. It's a warm day in Sydney today--over 30 degrees, so I thought I'd see how cool I could go in my not very well insulated garage. -20 no problem, -25 still no problem, -30 it struggled but eventually got there running at 97-98%. Pretty cool!
Geoff

[ericwbenson]

Hi Geoff,
Can you do me a favour and collect a 1800sec dark frame and a bias frame at -30C? (Ideally a master dark with a master bias subtracted from it). They can be centered cropped 200x200 FITS frames. I would like to know what the dark current is at that temperature to compare to my cactus Alta U16M.

The temperature reading cannot be really compared between camera models (i.e. where is the thermistor located wrt the copper block and CCD), but the dark current which we really care about reveals how well the chip is cooled.

Thanks,
EB

[SimmoW]

I know a chap whose QSI 683 purrs along at -30, even when it's over 25c out. Very impressive.

[ericwbenson]

Oh and btw I calculate that I get 0.018 e-/pix/sec at -30C for the Alta. I actually think it should be better than that since FLI claim 0.02 eps @-20C for the PL16803.
EB

[LewisM]

During winter, my FLI ML8300 hit -48° without trying, using 78% power. It apparently will go to -53°.

I have not used it recently (not for want of wanting to!), but I believe it will also do -30° in summer. Great thing is it get's there fast too!

Best cameras I have EVER used - make SBIG's look like Box Brownie's in comparison :) (half joking... I like SBIG, but LOVE FLI)

I run ALL my frames and cal frames at -30° set, as I KNOW the cam will achieve that all year round.

[strongmanmike]

Gunna have a lota fun with that baby...and your other babies Geoff, a dream setup really, for the aperture I don't think it gets any better :thumbsup:

Oh an yes the FLI cooling is excellent I have had two FLI's now (11002 and 16803) I ran my PL11002 at -35C all year and I run my 16803 at -30C all year (bigger chips reduce cooling) and used the same set of darks for nearly two years with both cameras :thumbsup:

Mike

[RickS]

I have a Alta U16M and I get 0.0097 e-/pix/sec (mean) and 0.0074 e-/pix/sec (median) at -30C. That's with overscan calibration. I started doing overscan calibration when I noticed that there was significant drift in my bias values and that the dark current didn't appear to scale linearly. Taking overscan into consideration the dark current behaves as you would expect...

Cheers,
Rick.

[codemonkey]

My Atik 314L+ is struggling to sit at -9c as I write this. Somewhat jealous.

[Geoff45]

OK Eric. Sometime during the coming week.

[Geoff45]

Yes, I like the QSI cameras. I have a 540 model and originally intended to get a 700 series model with the 16803 chip, but then QSI pulled the plug on the 700 series models, so I went with FLI.

[Bassnut]

Ok, well my box brownie idles at -35 year round,odd comment.....