Not quite sure why this hits the front page. Most serious astrophotographers have been using similar setups for a while now, or ideally peltier cooled CCDs (like Starlite Express, Atik or QHY cameras). More recently cooled CMOS sensors (like the ZWO1600MM-Cool) have also gained popularity. It's a bit of niche market, but for long exposure photography having a cooled sensor greatly reduces thermal noise. And since the signal is very faint you often do a lot of "histogram stretching", bringing out the signal, but also the noise. In addition to having a low noise camera you also often do things like bias, dark and flat callibration, reducing impurities further. Dark subtraction is often known as "long exposure noise reduction" in consumer cameras, but astrophotographes like to do it manually. There are a lot of details to consider when doing astrophotography, but I'm always happy I can set my CMOS or CCD (own both the QHY10-OSC and ZWO1600MM-Cool) to a deltaT of -40ºC.
However it still isn't exactly that new or revolutionary... CentralDS has been doing this with Canon cameras for a while now and it looks like P.L.L. has just taken the cooler and retrofitted it to a Nikon this time. Still went with the ASI 1600MM-Cool and MC-Cool based on their prices still being lower together than what they're charging.
I know little to nothing of astrophotography, so this article comes as news to me. (I like the article, FWIW.) I wasn't even aware cooling could be used to account for sensor noise. Now my mind is actively aware of the problem and is trying to enumerate other possible means of correction in this, and other, imaging fields.
The article is mildly interesting, but this is not state of the art by any means.
It's a little bit like an article saying "computer engineers use special software that could take human readable source code and convert it into executable binaries for faster execution". A layperson would have their minds blown, but it's a super-yawner for those in the industry.
Also - the article gives the impression that colder is better.
While there's some truth to that, it's not about how cold you get it, it's about how consistent the temperature is, as for a given CCD noise will usually be the same at the same temperature. I take darks only about once a month or if I notice a new hot pixel on an output - I take them at a range of temperatures, so that depending on what the weather is like I can choose a temperature for light frames, and then just use my pre-cooked darks.
Out of interest, unless you live in a desert, how are you setting to -40 delta without the thing freezing?
As to "why is this here?" - Astrophotography is a great hobby that'd likely appeal to the HN crowd. Sitting out under the stars spending hours doing very fine polar alignment, only to get a few dozen exposures, while worrying about everything from dew to wind to beetles climbing your tripod legs, and then days in startools, DSS, and all the rest, seeing just how much information you can squeeze out of your often slightly blurry light frames.
I actually almost enjoy the DSP end of things more - there's something ineffably cool about starting with the same set of input images and getting radically different results depending on how you treat them. I mean - stick a drizzle filter on your image, do a wavelet sharpen, lift your jaw from the floor, as it seems like you've just done some CSI style "ENHANCE" shit. Here's an example of what you can start with, and end up with - I'm really not too good at this and only have limited kit, but it's still exciting. This is the dumbbell nebula, shot on a windy night with a full moon - I shouldn't have bothered almost, but the final is still decent considering the garbage input. http://imgur.com/a/tyZ4j
Anyway, ramble aside, the more folks who are aware of astrophotography the merrier. It's just too much fun.
Oh I can set it to -40º below ambient. But usually I set it to a target of -15ºC (with an ambient temperature of around 10ºC, this winter I might go a bit lower).
Not stressing the PEC is gentler on the battery too. You have to be slightly careful when doing cooldown and warmup to avoid condensation and thermal shock (or at least, I think I should be), but I've never had any problems with it.
Also great shot! I feel your pain with the wind, dew and bugs... but it's still an awesome hobby.
