Player One Astronomy Active Cooling System (ACS) for uncooled cameras

Player One Astronomy Active Cooling System (ACS) for uncooled cameras

ACS (Active Cooling System) is a external air-cooled system, designed for solar and big format planetary cameras.

Why I need ACS?

ACS can provide much better temperature control for uncooled cameras. We all have some bad experiences in hot summer. The temperature of sensor rising up and camera shield is too hot to touch, afraid of  the camera can’t working normally.

We have been aware of the heating problem before, so we added PCS (Passive Cooling System) to the camera. However, looks it is not enough! In 2022, summer ambient temperature even over 40℃ (104℉)  camera sensor might close to 60℃ in long time using under sunlight.

Although our users said Player One camera is still working well in hot day, but we think it’s still has damage risk. So we decide to make this ACS unit, to provide much better temp control.

Take a look of following test graph:

Clearly, that when camera has PCS + ACS, temperature is only 7℃ higher than ambient, camera body is a little warm but won’t hot!

ACS is not only can be used in daylight for solar imaging, it also could be used in night for DSO lucky imaging.

Does my camera support ACS?

ACS is only useful on some uncooled cameras, not all of them. The camera must already has PCS in it, so that heat from sensor could transmit to the shield, then the ACS can dissipate heat by air cooling.

How to setup ACS?

Setup of ACS is simple, we wrote a quick guide, only has 6 steps. Please read the guide and setup your ACS correctly.