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Debate: Should astrophotography cameras have built-in cooling or just rely on dark frames?
I was at the Cherry Springs Star Party last month and someone showed me their cooled CCD setup versus my DSLR with dark frame subtraction. Their images were way cleaner but their rig weighed like twice as much. Now I'm torn - is the extra gear worth it for better noise control, or are we overcomplicating things when software can fix most of it? What do you all think?
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the_jessica2h agoMost Upvoted
...and then I tried explaining dark frames to my neighbor and he asked if I was developing film in a fridge. @david_palmer, you joke but I bet that mini fridge setup would have saved me from the three bags of ice I strapped to my camera once. Honestly, it's less about cooling and more about how much extension cord you're willing to pack.
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rowanr8843m ago
Flip it around and ask why anyone would willingly add more complexity to an already finicky hobby. @the_jessica's bag of ice story is exactly why cooling is a headache waiting to happen. Dark frames take like five minutes to shoot and software handles the rest. You trade a few minutes of setup time for a rig that doesn't need a separate power supply or a second trip to carry it. Plus cooled cameras still need calibration frames, so you're not even escaping that step.
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