I've been doing a bit of research on open-hardware, cooled CCD's with the aim of updating my ATiK 16HR camera to USB2 at the minimum. I expect that this will involve replacing everything except the CCD (Sony ICX285), peltier and case.
I'm sure many of you are aware of the high cost of this equipment so it may be of interest.
The Audine project (2004):
www.astrosurf.com/audine/English/index0.htm
Successful Italian effort to create an open-sourced camera (2006):
www.uai-ccd.com/
The Open Camera Project (very much a WIP but good information):
opencamera.wikispot.org/
  