Cooling Atik 4000 Mono...

fatwoul · 25 May 2012 at 18:36

First off, hello. Nice to meet you all.

I'll be honest, I'm not really here for the clocking stuff (interesting as it is), I'm here for some advice on whether the liquid cooling devices used on CPUs, etc could be used to cool an astro camera - specifically, this one.

Despite being capable of some lovely results, it's based on a fairly noisy Kodak sensor, and needs to be kept as cool as possible, Currently, I'm running it at -20C, but I think with a little ingenuity (yours - I don't have any left) it can be run much cooler, even at this time of the year.

As you'll see from the pictures, the camera has a couple of 4.8mm nozzles for water cooling, but no specific system exists to make use of them. I was thinking maybe just a basic pump/reservoir/radiator system from OCUK might do the trick, but what do you guys reckon?

I don't know if any of you are into this sort of thing, but here's a picture I did last night with this camera from 2 miles outside Plymouth:

Hope you like it, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Guitarman0 · 25 May 2012 at 18:39

I don't really have much to input here except if it is watercooled it will not run any cooler than the ambient temperature therefore your temperature of -20 degrees you say you run it at currently would be cooler than anything you get from watercooling. That is unless you buy a water chiller.

fatwoul · 25 May 2012 at 18:43

Guitarman0 said:
I don't really have much to input here except if it is watercooled it will not run any cooler than the ambient temperature therefore your temperature of -20 degrees you say you run it at currently would be cooler than anything you get from watercooling. That is unless you buy a water chiller.

Ahh thanks. So water cooling is really only intended for things like CPUs that are running at much higher temperatures than ambient. Got it.

Cheers, Guitarman.

James J · 25 May 2012 at 19:25

Even a water chiller is a bad idea as theres a point where the pipes will show condensation and the pressure will rise in your system. At that point it tends to fail, destroying components in the process!

fatwoul · 25 May 2012 at 21:02

Thanks James. I think between you, you've convinced me it's not even a starter.

Cheers for the advice.

James J · 25 May 2012 at 21:04

No problem mate, glad you didn't attempt it first instead of ask lol.

pecnarf · 26 May 2012 at 18:29

if you look on youtube or google you should find some vid and information on liquid nitrogen cooling. that is the only option to get any temp below -20c. now i use my eos 550d as my 2" astro imager get some really good reason but i also mod my tucan 2 (spc900) webcam to act as an 1.25" imager. if you check some of the astro imager/ astrophotography forum i'm sure you get some better replie or idea's for cooling you imager better. other than that i can only suggest looking at a newer imager with better cooling on it. i have heard this company imager http://www.astronomycameras.com/ are to be good ones using a sony ccd instead of the Kodak sensor.