M42 - DSLR Cooler box Test

[Screwdriverone]

Hi All,

M42 - The Great Orion Nebula. 29th Sept 2012 - Full Moon up at the time. 10 x 5 min Exposures at ISO 400 using unmodified Canon 1000D and EOS Clip CLS filter, 10 x darks.

Camera cooled by home made peltier cooled fridge box, Camera sensor temp stable at 4 deg C for the whole hour. Processed in PS CS3 and Startools. I tried not to overdo the processing, I'm quite happy with how the noise was tamed by the cooler. Seems to be a lot smoother without all the thermal noise.

I forgot to take some shorter subs to tame the core, but for now, this will do as I was predominately testing the efficacy of the cooler box.

This was based on the Gary Honis design. Some pics of the box are attached. Approximately 9-11 degrees below ambient seem possible. I have now purchased an internal/external digital thermometer for $12 from Bunnings, so next time out I will measure the actual temp inside the box....rather than just the exif data reported by Backyard EOS :)

Full pic here https://www.dropbox.com/s/23pij9nq2sl7sj3/orion-ps-st-modified.jpg

The attached JPG has been resized down to 1024 x 620.

Comments and critiques are welcome.

Cheers

Chris

[rustigsmed]

Nice job chris, with summer coming its only a matter of time till I do the same.

Cheers
Rusty

[seeker372011]

Lookin goodl

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Rusty, I used a 48W peltier for $12 so, I may need to up the stakes and put in say a 65W or 80W one when it gets warmer, they are still less than $20 I think.

Having said that, the temp when I was taking this went from about 15 degrees down to 10 degrees during the night, and the camera sensor dropped from 13 down to 4 and occasionally dropped as low as 2 degrees (when it was 10 ambient).

So, not a bad result!

Cheers

Chris

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Narayan!

Cheers

Chris

[ourkind]

Loving the detail in the flame, very nice Chris! :thumbsup:

[Visionoz]

Good one Chris!:thumbsup:

Looks like almost no hotties, (oops! I mean hotpixels), very smooth test image - would like to do one for my modded 40d which is too much hot pixels during the hotter months

Cheers
Bill

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Carlos, ummm, this isnt the Flame Nebula, by the way, that's over near Alnitak, not too far away, but definitely not in this photo. Funnuily enough, it did occur to me yesterday that it reminded me of a campfire blazing into the night sky in this orientation. :)



Thanks Bill, yes, the number of hot pixels drops dramatically with temperature, although DSS removes what's left anyway, it's amazing how much smoother the resultant signal is without all the splotchiness all over the sub. Its well worth the trouble making one of these, not too hard either, took me about a day and a half all up to fiddle around and finalise things.

Cheers

Chris

[Nico13]

Looks like it was well worth the effort Chris because if the Canons noise levels are anything like my Pentax K10D of about the same vintage then its done a great job.
If I start having issues over summer with my K5 this may be an option for me also.
Thanks for showing it. :thumbsup:

[Ross G]

Photo looks great Chris.

Clever work.

Good luck.

Ross.

[Screwdriverone]

Thanks Ken, yes, the amount of noise and amp glow it reduces is amazing, it will be interesting to see how it fares in the warmer temps too. You're welcome, I havent done anything unique, simply followed the design on the website for Gary Honis, it was a bit fiddly, but luckily I had the soldering iron for the connections, the glue gun and pop rivets etc...



Cheers Ross, I am quite happy with it too, it's great just how much easier it is to process these when there isnt all the noise all over them.

Thanks

Chris