Warming a cooled camera after imaging?

[Altair8389]

Hi,

I was wondering how vital this is, as I got a cooled camera the Atik 314L+ recently. I have been testing it and not warming the camera sensor after shutting down the camera/computer.

 

I read this can damage the sensor due to “thermal shocks”

Does everyone warm their cameras up? Do you wait for it to reach near ambient temperature? What about taking camera indoors after imaging? Would that be a thermal shock to the sensor?

 

Thanks.

 

[Albir phil]

I have a zwo 533 when I have finished imaging I just leave it and it will warm up on its own.Not sure but I think warming it up might cause problems.Best let it go back to ambient temperature on it's own.

[adyj1]

Nina has the option to set a 'slower' warm-up than just switching it off (you configure a time and it steps the cooler back over that time). I normally set 4 mins.

As far as I can tell there isn't a proven "you will break your cooled astrocamera if you don't do this" argument, but it seems like a sensible approach. Its the most expensive bit of astro kit I own 😉

Ady

[Gogleddgazer]

Since moving across to NINA I always warm my camera as per Ady's post above. Simple enough to do while closing up/derigging other elements so doesn't add time to any imaging session. To my mind it makes sense to do such things gradually and under control. Whether that is better or worse than simply switching it off and allowing things to equalise naturally I am not sure, although I would imagine that the latter has a less even sensor temperature curve than when gradually reducing cooling.

[Elp]

Its not exactly the same as say putting cold water onto hot glass (never do it), if it were an issue I'm sure the manufacturers would do something about it. Camera warms up quite quickly above zero with the cooling switched off.

Edited June 9, 2023 by Elp

[SamAndrew]

If it really was an issue, they'd warn you not to take your camera from sub zero temperatures into a warm house.

[david_taurus83]

Atik stuff is pretty well engineered. My old 460EX never skipped a beat, never disconnected, never dropped a sub or failed a download. Wish the same could be said for ZWO stuff lol. I think it's pretty safe just letting the camera driver control the cool down, not sure if it controls warm up or just switches off and let's the heat sink do the work...

To err on the side of caution, I let NINA control both cooling and warming with a minimum 10 minute period each.

[carastro]

I always warm my cameras via the software as it was what l was told to do.  
it doesn’t take long why is it a problem to do so.   I am sure you can be dismantling something else while it warms.  

[Anthonyexmouth]

On 06/06/2023 at 13:32, Albir phil said:

I have a zwo 533 when I have finished imaging I just leave it and it will warm up on its own.Not sure but I think warming it up might cause problems.Best let it go back to ambient temperature on it's own.

The warm up in nina/APt and such doesn't actually warm it it, it gradually adjusts the cooling to allow a nice slow warm up. If its a warm summer night just switching off from -15/20 can cause a bit of a shock.