My latest two images, NGC3628 and M101

dmcdona wrote: Simon - I'm curious. Why so many flats?

So many flats are used to counteract any random noise during the flats, also for the time it takes to get my 53 flats, probably less than 30 minutes in total, as the exposure for flats is something like 0.8Seconds per frame

Neat.
Any idea what sort of temperature decrease you can achieve?

michaeloconnell wrote: Neat.
Any idea what sort of temperature decrease you can achieve?

Hi Michael

Yes of course, now I also have a fan regulator on it, which I always have set to the minimum speed, I've never yet had to increase the speed. Typically, I get around a 22-24 Degree C Drop in temperature, for example the other night it was 7 degrees outside, and my camera stablized at -15 with constant imaging. At one point I paused imaging for a few minutes, and the camera was then reporting -22 Degrees C

I did originally go down the route of Gary Honis' idea of building a cooling box out of metal, withthe objective to cool the air inside the box, that design didn't work out too well and I did not get anywhere near what I wanted, so I designed and built a box which is very very effective and I'm happy with it, especially as I now have all the cables inside the box too

Simon

Simon

I'm also curious at the number of short-exposure flats.

In your response to Dave you mention dealing with "random noise" during the flats - what random noise would that be?

Every time you introduce an additional frame into your processing pipeline you will add its read noise - so combining 53 flats will increase the read noise in the final image considerably.

Your images are really splendid - but if you could indulge us a little more on your rationale here it would be appreciated.

Mark C.

Hi Mark

When I first got into AP with my DSLR about 3 years ago now, it was recommended to me by Terry Hancock (Search for him on flickr) he produces some outstanding images, and taught me a hell of a lot, I just got into the habit of taking the high number of flats because they take no time to create really, and plus you never get the same readout per flat frame no matter how much you try to

Simon