Let's take some flat frames - the simple way! #astrophotography

We've done this topic on the channel already, but it never hurts to reiterate! Note that with modern cooled cameras like the 533MC Pro, flat darks and bias are essentially approximations of one another - and thus bias could be used to calibrate both flats and lights (with no need for flat darks). And flat darks could be used as bias frames. I personally keep it simple with lights, lots of darks (which includes bias), flats and lots of flat darks (which also include bias).

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[AstroBackyard]

I prefer "tomato frames" over dark flats :)

[woody]

Always encouraged by your enthusiasm, thanks Cuiv

[calculadwest]

Excellent clear jargon free demo. Great help for a beginner. Thanks

[hellhoundytb]

Gotta get me one of these fancy astrophotography white t-shirts

[justindame]

Always good for a refresher! Thanks Cuiv, love your videos as always!

[NeilW]

Thanks Cuiv, informative as always, and very entertaining 😁

[stevegiwr]

I love the graphic description of teashirt 😂😂

[supergamer]

Can you make a video how to make flat frames with the dwarf II?

[Spaced_Out_Bill]

Thank you! You did a great job of explaining this process. I cant wait to try flats in NINA and someday I hope to have a Flat Field Generator so I can look pretty too! LOL

[rtumkur]

Thanks Cuiv. Have never used the Flat Wizard in NINA. Now I know how to do it. Thanks for the video!

[davidaylsworth]

I’ve been using a tracing panel for exposing flats over the last few months. I made diffusion masks from white t-shirts and embroidery hoops to go over the front of my various telescopes or lenses. It took some exploring and mods to this working reliably, but now I’ve got a system that works for my needs. I use the APT CCD Flats wizard to generate a plan for flats and it’s really streamlined this part of the process. After every imaging session I gather the necessary calibration frames, beginning with the flats. I like your straightforward explanation of the why and how, concerning flats.

[OlliesSpace]

"Dirty Dirty astrophotographer" omg made me lol🤣. BTW Cuiv if you take images over multiple nights and basically leave the image train unchanged do you always take flats for each night? If I am lazy I tend not to but should I ?? Thanks Cuiv.

[RussianSevereWeatherVideos]

Is that lightning in the background? Lovely catch!

[fernandoapausa]

Thanks Cuiv, great video with some new pieces of new info, as always! May I ask you if you use the Weighted Batch PreProcessing Script in PixInsight to make your frame calibrations or some other? I dont see the possibility to add FlatDarks in that script... If not, should I use the ImageCalibration process entering the Flats as the frames to calibrate and the FlatDarks as Darks for such calibration? Are Bias also needed in the calibration of the Flats? Too may questions, sorry... :)

[marcc]

Bonjour,
comment traiter les flats avec les dark flats ? Est-il possible de les taiter automatiquement dans Siril ? Direct dans le dossier "flats" ?
Merci bcp.
Cordialement
Marc Bordeaux .

[BLarsenPhoto]

Thanks for the video. How do you know that the exposures should be at least 1.5 seconds? I've looked online and can't find anyone explaining how bright the light should be if using an artificial light source. I tried using my computer screen and wondering how bright ideally my screen should be and how close I should have my camera from the screen?

[cdh]

i have a flatpanel without a dimmer, and put a few sheets of white paper over it to diffuse it a bit and to get the right ADU.. and then used the flat-frame wizard in SGP to calculate the times (in a few days I'll set this up in NINA)
My Oiii flats are a bit over 10 seconds, while my Ha and Sii are around 3.5.. just shows how little light gets through them..

[blackice]

Can you provide a link for that circular light?

[Seafox]

Great refresher and seeing NINA in action.

[cucubits]

Any idea why NINA preview shows flats taken through an l-extreme, completely yellow with two distinct separate peaks in the histogram yet when opening the files with any other fits viewer, they seem correct? Is there some hidden setting in NINA to mess with color balance? Happens only for flats. Using the same Artesky flat field generator. The camera is a 2600MC.