Taking flats with QHY8 advice needed.

[earlybird]

Well I have learnt to use the QHY8 and can now produce an image. I capture in Maxim and take a sequence of Light's, Dark's, Bias and Flat frames.

The Flat frames are unusable as I took them during the imaging session as prompted by the maxim sequence.

Could I please have some advice on the best and easiest way to take flats that will be usable.

I have heard one way is to point the scope at clear sky during the day etc.

What would you advise ?

John

[Pluto]

Hi John i was told the same put a white t-shirt (ironed ) or paper in-front of the scope and take flats,

which yesterday i did,only problem is when i stack the lights and flats together i get a big black circle

in the middle and all around it its really light,so something is not right.I was told by a friend the histogram

in my flats should match my light frames to get that sort of results i have to mess around with analog offset.

I'm still working to find a way around this.

[SteveL]

I`m still having issues with my RGB flats... If I am using Ha filter and my lights and flats are grey scale (the stripped out red channel), no problem.... but RGB color is still an issue.

The other problem I have is that I cant do the usual "throw a T-Shirt over it" trick with the Hyperstar system (all the kit pointing out the front). As the moment, I have a LARGE bit of white card stuck to the outside of the patio doors, and ailluminate it from a distance with a camping lamp (nice difuse light source), but its not ideal.

Once AstroZap release the new style hard dew shield for the Hyperstar systems, I`ll work on a better and more reliable/reproducable/portable system for my flats.