Water cooling pump for ST-10XE


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Water cooling pump for ST-10XE: This shows the water cooling pump to help chill the SBIG ST-10XE CCD camera. The camera normally operates ~35-40°C below ambient, which gives a great operating temperature in the winter, but not quite as good in the summer. The pump is from Home Depot (the second smallest one they had) and the ice chest was from an Omaha Steaks Christmas gift from a couple of years ago. I freeze a one gallon milk jug and bring that to the observatory each time. If the lid stays tight on the ice chest, there will still be ice up to 48 hours later. The pump is barely strong enough. Depending on the camera orientation, the water bath sometimes needs to be lifted to get the flow started. Once it is going, the camera can maintain -35°C with ~80% effort.

Date: June 2010

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