So I got the EOS 350D and on the same day I astro-modded it . Here are some pictures I took during that process:



There were many tiny ribbon cables to disconnenct and reconnect and I had to (de-)solder the EM shielding. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't too difficult either.



The chip assembly.



Flashy hologram Oo .



CMOS and filter separated. Of course common photography is not reccommended without that filter, because a) the white balance is way off and you also get a lot of IR light mixed into the photograph and b) without a replacement the focal planes for finder and chip are pretty much different, so you can't focus.
I'll reopen the cam at some later point, when I bought a replacement filter that still allows astronomical use. Then I can have both, astronomical use of the cam and common use .
Here are the statistics of the Canon filter, the replacement filter and the all so important H-alpha emission line:



(taken from this website: [link] )

And the first image I took with the modded cam: it's a soldering iron, taken in total darkness. It's a complete IR image:



I'm so amazed by this camera! The noise is extrelemy low compared to the Nikons I'm used to, also the noise pattern is pretty much fixed. A master dark eliminates so much noise, it's freightening me! The EOS can do exposures of 1.5 hours in total and the battery is still not completely empty. Also the cam merely heats itself up. The Nikons I know (D100 and D200) draw so much energy during exposure that the battery is empty after 30 minutes and as bad side effect, noise, amp glow and camera temperature are much worse. The Nikons become really warm!
Everything is so easy now, autoguiding is working, the filter blocks very much ofthe light pollution and you need only a few minutes of exposure to see those gas clouds in space. I'm so in love!
Still there are things to optimize: I need a decent finder scope on the guide scope to speed up searching for guide stars, also the guide scope itself is horrible (it's a 60mm f/15 refractor -.- ) .

• Mood
  • 
    
    
• Listening to
  • nothing
• Playing
  • Simutrans
• Drinking
  • -