Following is a description of
the Artemis CCD cam housing.
The housing holds the two
PC-boards, a fan, the peltier.
Provides a cold chamber and mounting possibilities via a ring adapter.
The adapter have T and M42 dimensions which allow to attach
the cam to regular T-thread items and via adapter to 1.25"
eyepiece holders and to my set of Canon and M42 SLR lenses.
I decided to apply some yellow paint to the housing - that is.
The peltier is glued to the alu housing with a two component epoxy -
the base was sanded and cleaned before. Only the thinnest film of glue is
enough. Before I had marked the cold side with a C (just use a 1.5V
battery to find out which side gets cold).
Later the CCD will sit on a cold finger on top of the peltier.
The power supply for the peltier is a stepdown
regulator which is fed by the 12V main supply. The cam allows to bring
the peltier power separate from the rest. A stepdown regulator will not
just burn the voltage drop but transforms the voltage to a lower level
quite efficiently (80%+) but one has to have it outside the housing due to
EMC.
The supplier of the regulator is the German ELV (2-A-Step-Down-Schaltregler,
Part-Nr.: 68-193-72 about 16€) www.elv.de
Cam assembly
Also the nosepiece is glued to the main housing, again only a thin
layer of epoxy and clean (spiritus) surfaces.
Putting everything together is fairly straight.
And finally............
This is the first light picture of M45 taken on the day of the first light of
the cam using an SLR lens an the icx255 ccd 10sec exposure.
