What is a Hot Pixel?

A hot pixel has a higher than average dark current. This can be accounted for in the dark spectrum or by cooling. However, if the dark current is too large, the pixel might saturate prematurely. If that is the case, the pixel can be considered defective and interpolated over. At StellarNet we define a “hot pixel” as any pixel who has a count larger than the baseline by 6,500 counts at 3 second exposure time (maximum is 65,536).