From: "Tim" <tjp314@pacbell.net>

Date: September 8, 2006 6:10:39 PM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Flea a year old now

I think what I'm going to do is simply leave the Mogg adapter with the

IR block filter screwed into it attached to the camera at all times.

I have camera lens to c-mount adapters as well, but find that I don't

really use it for that purpose. Besides, I do have the DSI pro for

widefield imaging with camera lenses too - just don't like the camera

all that much.

What about enclosing the whole camera in a sealed dry enclosure that

is then cooled? Or would that be too complicated to be worth the

bother?

I like the Flea's "stock" performance with Astro IIDC on exposures up

to 5 minutes or so, so long as I don't set the brightness gain up very

high.

Been since RTMC that I haven't had a scope out much. Was hoping to

for last dark of the moon, but got busy at work, then had a fall that

I'm recovering from (no broken parts, but sore side). Going to have

to keep it to the ligher stuff for a while now.

-Tim.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com, Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

Hi Tim;

On 8-Sep-06, at 12:00 PM, Tim wrote:

Milton:

Well, my Color Flea is now about a year old, so it's out of warranty

and I'm considering removing the internal IR blocking filter and using

a screw-in IR blocker that doesn't cut so much visible light as the

blue-tinted built in filter does.

The only issue you will have is that the CCD is going to be exposed

to dust, fingers etc. You might want to get a plain glass filter to

replace it with to avoid that problem.

I remember you said it wasn't difficult to do when you removed yours.

Nope it's pretty easy to do, just take your time (about 30 minutes

the first time) and don't be in a rush.

you might also want to look at my Peltier Cooler design too.

http://www.outcastsoft.com/AstroImages/

Cheap_Peltier_Camera_Cooler_MJA.pdf

Any pointers? Things to be wary of?

Here's my notes on the subject. This was after I removed the outside

metal case.

The hardest part was finding a hexagonal L wrench small enough (it

was either a 1.0 or a 0.75 mmm size) to fit in the 4 bolts. After

that, removing the last board against the camera mount plate was a

bit scary, because it seemed like it was epoxied together, but in

fact there are 2 hidden pins that hold them together. A bit of slow

gentle prying with a jeweler flat head screwdriver and I got the

mount plate and last board separated without any damage. It required

some force to pop out the original filter too.. It took about 30

minutes start to finnish to do it and once I know what I'm doing it

probably would only take 5 to 10 minutes now.

PS:

I also did this on another manufacturers (not PGR or TIS thank

goodness) 1280x1024 Format 7 color camera this week. For some

completely idiotic reason the IR filter the company used used has a

"frosting" / Diffusion pattern on it. That's "okay" (well not

really) if your just using it for with a short focal length lens for

Machine Vision, but when you have long focal length nearly parallel

light then the frosting pattern projects right onto the CCD and

shows up as a billion little shadow donuts. Once I replaced it with a

15x15 mm Edmund IR blocking Filter, it's fine but gack - have these

guys never used it on a telescope / microscope before?

HTH..

Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@...