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Cooling down the ccd with delay

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Hi Jasem,

I have learnt during the past couple of days that I should not cool down the ccd cam in one go, instead should allow 10-20 minutes to reach the desired temperature. Could you think about a delay factor, to reach the target temperature over a period in time that can be freely chosen?

Best, Helge
5 years 8 months ago #27179

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I'm interested to know why you should not cool down the CCD in one go please.
5 years 8 months ago #27180

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Step-by-step cooling of a CCD camera is a fairly common theory among French astrophotographers, who believe that too rapid cooling could cause damage to the CCD sensor. Since this idea is supported by a few big names in the French-speaking astro community, it has become a basic rule. I'm quite divided; when I think about it, I apply steps for cooling, but when I don't think about it, well, not much serious happens. I've browsed a lot of foreign forums, I haven't read this cooling method elsewhere. A colleague of mine applies the following rule: he drops the temperature by 5°, he waits 5 minutes. And so on, to reach -15°. His photos are superb; but is his cooling method essential? I'm not totally convinced... Otherwise, there must be a way to make a script to automate the method.
5 years 8 months ago #27181

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I have heard this argument before. I do not know whether it matters or not actually. I have been astro imaging with CCD's for 20 years or so and have not yet had a problem. That is not to say there will never be a problem or that anecdotal evidence should serve as evidence for something not being true. But I very frequently just turn off the cooler instead of setting a temperature and waiting for it to get there.

Anyway, you wouldn't really want to set a time to reach temperature, you would probably want to set a cooling rate or a stepwise cooling as mentioned by the last poster. For example, I don't think you would want to take the same time to cool from 40 degrees C to 0 degrees C as you would to cool from 10 degrees C to 0 degrees C.

It could certainly be implemented, but the question is in what manner to implement it and is it really needed.
5 years 8 months ago #27182

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Good morning, the background of my post is that I have some problems with condensation (ASI071pro) and people in the ZWO user group suggested to spread the cooling-down over 10-20 minutes, also with references the large chip.
5 years 8 months ago #27189

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