zahry

Hi, I'm not very familiar with photography as such so wouldn't know the stop, I think it was F5.6.

It should be clear out here on thursday, so it might get its first light then. i'll take some flats and post them.

the issue with liquid cleaners is that it almost always leaves a residue, so it'll be next to impossible to have it perfectly clean unless you have the tools, clean room etc.

main issue is with dust clinging on due to static.

I go through the surface with the microscope at max magnification, clean up whatever is visible and then semi-seal the front glass.

even maxmax mention that it won't be perfectly clean. Best bet is to always use Flats.

the photosites or the layer beneath the cfa looks like glass as I believe its a sandwich of multiple layers.

I think the blower and a fine paint brush would be the best as using a cloth would generate static and attract dust.

Good luck

Alistair

Hi Alistair,

try ionized gas = İonizing Air Gun - it's used in industrial processes for eliminating static charges and getting rid off dust from surfaces. There are some ways how to make it DIY. Even the scraping will be generating quite a lot of static that will attract every piece of dust in vicinity. If the static charge will remain it could be causing problems with dust even later until the charge will be neutralized (for that quite a lot of dust is required ;-). Ionized air is the way how to get rid of the problem. Increasing humidity of air also helps to reduce the problem with static and dust although it doesn't eliminate it. Here is one ionizing air gun in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx2B6ZBm7X8.

I'm hoping to start working on my sensors soon (so far I'm bogged down with work)

Congratulations!

I'm very interested in this thread - I think mono DSLRs have huge potential especially for beginners and SCT owners with long focal lengths. I'm just working on write up about imaging and processing technique with ultra high ISO (12800, 6400) which requires minimum skills and it is showing very promising results. I'm getting photos with almost no noise, good color range and it doesn't look too bad either (considering that data acquisition rarely went over 60 min in total). http://www.flickr.com/photos/simpit/ all those photos we shot with ISO 12 800 or 6 400 without good polar alignment (just point the scope in right direction but guided) the shots from CGEM 925HD are usually 10, 60 or 120s and all photos from the 127SLT are usually 10s or less. The camera is canon 650D unmodified (just stock & no cooling - avg temp of the sensor was 15-20ºC) and my garden is in the middle of the city so I have to use Astronomik CLS filter due to bad LP. I think in Mono with Ha, OII and S filters the results would be even better. I'll share the technique as soon as I'll finish the write up - I'm trying to put there not just how to do it but how it works and why because there is a lot of myths surrounding this subject that I found (experimentally) to be completely wrong.