Taking Darks with other camera

[AstroRookie]

Hello,

I have 2 Canon's Eos 500D. One that I bought new 10(?) years ago, and one that I bought second hand in april of this year, to use as my dedicated "astro-camera". The latter, I have removed the IR filter. My question, while my "astro-modded" camer is taking the light frames, can I take the dark frames with my non-astro-modded camera (same shutter speed and iso of course)? Can the dark frames of this non-astro-modded camera be used in the calibration process? After all, its the same processor, and if the death pixels are not the same, these are handled by the bias frames, no?

Thanks for clarifying.

AstroRookie

[Kryptic]

The idea is that darks are a map of the thermal noise generated by the camera sensor - different cameras, different maps. So no, not really.

Edited November 15, 2020 by Kryptic

[Budgie1]

There has been questions recently about the worth of taking and using dark frames with DSLR cameras. The theory being (as I understand it) because darks are used to calibrate the thermal noise from the camera sensor at the same temperature as the lights were taken at then they are not that reliable with a DSLR. This is due to the DSLR not being cooled and the sensor temp can vary over the course of an imaging session.

The inclusion of darks with flats & bias frames makes very little difference, so only using flats & bias with the lights is all that's needed for a DSLR, as long as you're using dither if you're guiding.

Here's one thread:

Personally, I've stopped taking darks and now only use flats & bias frames for calibration with my DSLR. This hasn't made any noticeable difference to the stacked results and means I can take more lights during a session as I don't have to stop early in order to take the darks frames before packing up for the night.

I'm not saying don't use darks, but it may be worth experimenting to see the actual effects darks have on your images.