Well folks,
My absence from the Forum has been questioned by one or two other members - suffice it to say that, unfortunately, I am still around (I am about as difficult to eradicate as background noise).
Many years ago, before Astronomy came back into my life, I decided to start a few DIY projects in my (then) new house. More recently, when my darling wife decided that I was 'an OK kinda guy' and moved with me, she suggested that we (rather 'I') really ought to get some of these projects completed - even if that meant I wouldn't have time to even look at my PC.
And so, back at the start of November, I switched off my PC for the first time in years and gathered all my tradesman's tools around me to start tackling the myriad jobs that needed doing (from replastering walls to laying carpets).
However - there was an enticing carrot being held in front of me. My half-century was due at the end of November, and Margaret suggested that there might be a small reward if I got as many of the little jobs completed as I could.
And so, the big '5-oh' duly arrived - along with a small parcel containing the all-new QHY10 OSC CCD. Woo-hooh
Unfortunately, I had asked Bernard of Modern Astronomy if he could avoid using the usual 'clouds' that are so common-place when packaging any astro-gadget. He agreed, but seems to have used 'snow' instead. And lots of it. I have spent time in the north of Canada, Iceland and even five months in a tent a few hundred miles from the South Pole - but the weather we have had here recently has been ridiculous. I would have to 'upgrade' my two little Yorkshire Terriers to a full-blown team of Huskies if I were to have any chance of crossing the vast crevasse-strewn back garden that lies between me and the observatory (using a small spotting cope the other day, I remain convinced that I could see a food-cache about half-way out, with a Norwegian flag on it)
But, so far, I can report that the QHY10 does a VERY good job of acquiring Dark and Bias frames, and its TEC cooler can hold the CCD temperature more or less constant at -15C, using less than 50% 'power', even in an ambient temperature of +20C, and it can do this, easily, for over 24 hours - and with NO evidence of frost or condensation anywhere. And a Bias-calibrated, ImageIntegrated 30-frame, 300-second, MasterDark seemed to be very much 'under control', with only a few 'warm pixels' standing out from a very flat background, slightly affected by a few small patches of 'amp-glow'.
But, that's me now ready for another PC upgrade. It is horribly evident that PixInsight - despite its best attempts - takes a LOT longer to process a bunch of 20MB images than it ever did on my old sub-1Mb Meade DSI images!!! In fact, I have just realised that, once deBayered, images will be around 117Mb each
Does anybody know of a good, cheap, 20GHz, 16-core processor that I could upgrade with?
