Atik314L+ temperature

[mark7331]

Hi all. What temperature should I be cooling my 314L+ to? The manual states that lower than -5c won't show much improvement but how low does it need to be to reduce noise to an acceptable level?

Sorry if this is a daft question.

Mark

[barkis]

I don't think that camera is noisy to start with. Or so I've been told.

Here's a review of the camera from a link on Flo's website.

Ron.

http://www.atik-usa.com/usa_downloads/Atik-AstroPhoto-Vol5-Issue4.pdf

[mark7331]

Ron thanks for that. It's all becoming clearer..gradually.

Mark

[ollypenrice]

I used a 16HR, the earlier version, without set point cooling and it was incredibly low in noise. I didn't bother with darks. However, I think I would use them now had I kept the camera so I would set it for -5, make a master dark of about 9 subs, and use that when stacking. That will give you belt and braces, as it were, and it is next to no trouble to do.

It's a wonderful camera you have.

Olly

[mark7331]

Olly, thank you for the advice - I feel a bit more confident that I've got the right temperature now rather than my best guess.

I'll start building my library of darks at -5.

It really is a lovely camera

Mark

[Ben Ritchie]

An alternative is to just build a master bias frame and then use a bad pixel map to remove hot pixels, the 285 is so quiet that you can largely forget about traditional dark frames.

[mark7331]

Ok, sounds good. I'm going to try both approaches and see how they work out.

Thanks for the help all.

[philj]

Hi Mark

I have the 314L as well. The temperature control is for lowering the temperature below the ambient ,so when it says -5 its not -5C its actually the current ambient -5 degrees.

Therefore if you are imaging on one of the many hot sultry nights which the UK is famed for:rolleyes: you would be best to drop the temperature to reduce any noise. But if its -10 ambient then the camera is so quiet you could probably get away without any temperature control

Hope that helps.

Philj

[mark7331]

I have the 314L as well. The temperature control is for lowering the temperature below the ambient ,so when it says -5 its not -5C its actually the current ambient -5 degrees.

Hi Phil,

Is your model the 314L+ which has a cooling set point? The manual states that you can set the operating temperature rather than a difference in temperature up to a range of -27 from ambient.

The temperature readout shows the current ccd temperature. If you start out at 17c and set the cooling point to -5c the current temperature cools down all the way from 17c to -5c not to 12c as you suggest. The previous version, 314L, didn't have the set point feature - I wonder if that is the model you have?

Mark