Fri, 08/18/2023 - 21:33
Hi All,
I'm new here.
I live in a ~ Bortle 6/7 zone. When it comes to exposing in regard to light pollution, just how important is it to reduce thermal noise with cooling? It would seem that the shorter exposures for light pollution would obviate the need for cooling.
ZWO (and some other manufacturers) have these nifty cameras that are not cooled. I wonder why they would put them on the market and to whom they're marketing.
Any comments are appreciated.
Thanks -
Tony
In my experience…
Tony,
In my experience cooling is a good thing. It reduces noise. Also, at least some non-cooled cameras are designed for planetary imaging and have small fields which would make finding comp stars more difficult. Also check out whether they are 16 bit, 14 bit or 12 bit cameras.
Peter B
Thanks, Peter. I just saw this. I had been away from the office for a bit. I agree with you. Cooling gives far more control over calibration frames. The question was prompted by some commentary I had seen about light polluted skies, shorter exposure length, hence some consideration of thermal noise. Your comment about planetary imaging makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Tony