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email dave@allmon.com

Here is a pictorial essay on the modification of my camera for water cooling. Many may argue that there is no need to use water to cool the camera. I disagree - not because of the cooling, but because of the side effects. The fan causes a diagonal shake in the telescope, which can generally be minimized, but never really goes away. I have enough problems keeping the scope pointed at a star, so I figured that I could live without this one.

Although I do not have the equipment or the talent to machine parts, I do have a drill press and an attitude. These were brought to bear on the machined part Marty provided, and the result is shown here.
 

The flat piece is Marty´s handiwork. It is a 1/4 inch thick plate which has the same interface to the camera proper as the heatsink in the original camera. It has a hole hogged in the center which matches the CB245 heat exchanger interface to that camera proper. The hybrid ("Book of Genesis") was made using the thick super-glue found in model airplane shops. The hole was sized with files, the glue applied to the outside mating surface of the heat exchanger, and the two parts jammed together. I was going to clamp it, but science triumphed, and the parts were stuck fast in less than ten seconds.

This picture was taken after the endless draw filing to smooth the surface. The UO parts are fairly "rough hewn". The two holes in the surface of the circular heat exchanger are the original CB holes, and are not used. I didn´t get a picture of the holes I drilled and tapped for the cold finger and shutter thing. There are two nylon 6-32 screws clamping the cold finger, and the Delrin part is held by the original 4-40 screw.

A staged picture of the assembly. The foamie is not shown. One of the LM35 sensors can be seen peeking through the center hole. There is another one somewhere. The visible one goes into the hole in the cold finger.

A rear view of the assembled camera, with the heat exchanger cover off. The kit didn´t come with a gasket. I used the blue silicone stuff. I spread a very thin layer on the surface of the heat exchanger, and let it nearly cure before capping it. It doesn´t seem to leak, and there is no blue stuff floating around in the water barrel.

Just waiting for some pipe fittings from Home Depot. Bottom is up in this image. The tubing comes out the bottom, as does the signal cable. The power cable comes out the side. In retrospect, I should have made the hoses come out the side. I route the hoses and cables down the left fork of the scope. The LX seems to track much better when the worm pulls the scope toward the west than when it pulls to the east (holding the scope back).