Synscan: I didn't know that!

[deanm (Dean)]

I was just browsing through bits of the Sky-Watcher SynScan manual that I hadn't looked at before & was surprised to read that the 'Utilities' function can display supplied power voltage AND the temperature.

The former makes sense (handy if using batteries), but why temperature?

This feature must be useful in some circumstances, but I'll be buggered if I can think of one...!

SO, why fit a temperature sensor? Does it modulate tracking in some way (cold/warm mount lubricant)?

Dean

[raymo]

Hi Dean, The ambient temperature is very important to astro imagers, as
the higher the temperature, the more noise you will get in your images.
The ambient temp will dictate the max ISO one should use when using
an uncooled camera.
Unfortunately, the latest hand controller [V.4] doesn't have the
voltage or temp display features, and I'm not sure if the mount power
light still blinks when the power gets too low.
raymo

[deanm (Dean)]

Thanks Raymo - makes sense, but wouldn't you imaging folk be running the cooling on your SBIGs (or whatever) flat out & irrespective of air temperature?!

(Please excuse any ignorance on my part - I really only do visual).

Dean

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Dean, As Raymo says it is very important to imagers and a lot of us use DSLR's rather than dedicated astrocameras. These are normally less temperature controllable unless you want to some serious modifications to them so ambient is extremely valuable info.