Saturn 10/04/2009 with Peltier cooled primary

[Quark (Trevor)]

Hi all,

My first Saturn RGB with my primary mirror at ambient temp. Tonight was the first trial of my new Peltier cooling system.
Seeing was about 7/10 but there was some high altiitude Cirrus.

Pretty happy with this result.

Cheers
Trevor

[h0ughy (David)]

nice colours Trevor - so what temp did you get it stabilised to?

[Quark (Trevor)]

Hi Houghy,
For this RGB the ambient and primary temp started at 19.7, 7 minutes later the ambient was still 19.7 and the primary was 19.2

My cooler utilizes 3 Peltiers, each rated at 6 amps at 15 volt DC. The 3 Peltiers are connected in parallel and were running on only 6 volts DC pulling 8 amps. If I wind the voltage up my power supply can pull 25 amps.

Cheers
Trevor

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by Quark

Hi Houghy,
For this RGB the ambient and primary temp started at 19.7, 7 minutes later the ambient was still 19.7 and the primary was 19.2

My cooler utilizes 3 Peltiers, each rated at 6 amps at 15 volt DC. The 3 Peltiers are connected in parallel and were running on only 6 volts DC pulling 8 amps. If I wind the voltage up my power supply can pull 25 amps.

Cheers
Trevor

wow that would suck a battery dry in the field!!! any images of the cooler system?

be good to get perfect conditions!

[Quark (Trevor)]

Hi Houghy,

Tonight I will post details and images of the cooling system on the ATM forum.

Cheers
Trevor

[Dennis]

Hi Trevor

A lovely and very natural looking Saturn – good work! It’s also very interesting to hear of your exploits with Peltier cooling and as H0ughy explicated – what a lot of juice to feed the cooling system!

Cheers

Dennis

[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Nicely done Trevor, and good to hear about your foray into peltier cooling as well, it'll pay dividends in the cooler months.

cheers, Bird

[Lester]

Very nice image Trevor and the colours look so natural.

Glad you have got the peltier cooling working also.

[Quark (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by Lester

Very nice image Trevor and the colours look so natural.

Glad you have got the peltier cooling working also.

Thanks Lester, the image was very steady at 3 x but it was a shame that some high level cirrus was wafting through as it continually altered my histogram.

Originally Posted by bird

Nicely done Trevor, and good to hear about your foray into peltier cooling as well, it'll pay dividends in the cooler months.

cheers, Bird

Thanks Bird, the info on your website was invaluable, although my system is unique to how I designed my primary mirror cell. I really do appreciate your help.

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hi Trevor

A lovely and very natural looking Saturn – good work! It’s also very interesting to hear of your exploits with Peltier cooling and as H0ughy explicated – what a lot of juice to feed the cooling system!

Cheers

Dennis

Thanks Dennis, it does seem to require a lot of current but this system is for a 16" primary mirror. I think a more power frugal system could be designed for a smaller scope and even then, ounce you have cooled the mirror down the Pelter's can be turned off and the cooling fans keep the temp relatively stable for a while.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

wow that would suck a battery dry in the field!!! any images of the cooler system?

be good to get perfect conditions!

Houghy, I have posted an in depth post with heaps of images on the ATM forum. As I mentioned to Dennis the power consumption is relative. A 16" mirror is a fair sized heat sink in its own right. But ounce down to ambient you don't need the Peltier's running so its not as if you are consuming massive amounts of power all night.

[Jen]

As usual nice work Trev cheers