[glend (Glen)]

The initial test subs of M42 (non-cooled) showed some isopropanol evaporative type pattern on the surface which I assumed could be cleaned off, but more concerning was a couple of small diagonal lines and some black pixels scattered througout the image when zooming in to pixel level. The lines and black pixels only showed up on long subs of M42. I will go back and look through all of the subs shot at different exposure times but it is strange, it's not processing related.
Since that test I have completely cleaned the sensor with pure acetone and things have improved.
I have shot some auto shutter speed daylight shots, and flats against a white sheet of paper - which you would think would show up black pixels if they were dead pixels or pixels covered with residue of the bayer matrix. They did not appear in the short bright test shots. The lines, if they are there, probably won't show up in flats or bright shots.
I will probably buy one of the sensor lupe inspection tools so I can examine the sensor surface in more detail. For now it is clean enough to resume testing - when the cloud goes away.