Cooled Astro Camera: Problems with Frost

Published on 24 August 2023 at 08:45

This May I took some first images with my new Skywatcher Quattro 150P. I selected the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), using an Optlong L-eXtreme dual band filter.

After processing the images in PixInsight, I found some strange spots in the center of the image:

I was not sure, if this was caused by the new telescope because I had seen this for the first time - but could not imaging, how such speckles could be caused by the optics.

A quick search on the internet revealed, that this type of dots is caused by ice crystals in cooled astro cameras (see here). I am using a ZWO ASI 294 MC Pro, cooled down to -16° C. I followed the instructions from ZWO and dried the desiccant.

The forst has now disappeared from the images. I assume, it's good practice to dry the desiccant once a year.

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