What's going wrong

[Davey-T]

Been having problems with flats recently.

Putting vid's through PIPP then AS11 and loading master flat which used to work fine but now has gone hit and miss.

Using bag flats with Skyris 274 and LS60DS don't think I've altered any settings.

Here's images taken on different days without altering anything days where flats have worked then next day not.

Rather than correcting the uneven illumination it seems to accentuate it.

Any ideas welcomed

Dave

Flat worked                                                 

            Flatted not worked                                                                                               Unflatted

   

               Flat

 

[Luke]

Am interested to see what suggestions there are. Bag flats have been hit and miss for me for a while now, so I have gone back to defocused flats with my Quark and 120mm.

[Davey-T]

Will try defocused tomorrow, been resisting because I've got my Lakeside focuser set up just right so just a small tweak gets it spot on so didn't want to wind it right out, especially given the very short imaging windows recently the quicker I can be imaging the better.

Dave

[Ewan]

The flat seems a little too bright in the top right corner Dave, I only ever use defocussed flats & they seem to be fine.

I make so many changes when doing a solar run that when I change exp, gamma etc I defocus, take a new flat then move the lot into a folder.

Today I did 4 mosaic runs I think using various settings, even the Quark tuner got a fiddle, then shoot a new flat from the centre of the sun & save into individual folders.

I must admit I do use the bag method for my DSS images, they work fine.

[Freddie]

Defocus flats for me too. I find any slight change even in tuning means a flat doesn't work perfectly so a new flat is needed after any slight change.

That flat does look odd given the image you have posted without a flat applied. Very bright in the top right corner but no corresponding change on the top right corner of the actual image.

[David Smith]

I had the same problem when I was not getting full frame illumination whilst taking my defocused flats through the PST..

[Davey-T]

Thanks guys, will try defocused tomorrow, the illumination across the camera on the LS6O is not even but looks OK through the eyepiece, if only we had a long sunny day I could play with the tuning, don't think I will have enough time for that tomorrow.

Dave

[Ewan]

Thanks guys, will try defocused tomorrow, the illumination across the camera on the LS6O is not even but looks OK through the eyepiece, if only we had a long sunny day I could play with the tuning, don't think I will have enough time for that tomorrow.

Dave

Today is looking super clear, here's hoping you get out Dave & good luck.

[Davey-T]

Arghh contrails 

Dave

[Montana]

Couple of points, do you have a master flat that you use all the time or are you taking fresh ones on the day which match your image set up exactly? and second are you using the most up to date version of Autostakkert 2? You must take flats which are uniquely matched to the set up, ASK2 originally had a few probs with flats, the later versions work better. I have no idea if you are using another program

Alexandra

[Davey-T]

Think it's the latest version but will check, I take new flats every time I image, been taking 500 frames and making master flat in AS11, used to work fine with bag flats.

Today I fired up the MacBP and it wouldn't recognise the camera in either Mac mode or Win Bootcamp using Firecapture, iCap, or oaCapture.

Bought it indoors, installed Firecapture on laptop and it works, also works in iCap, now off down the garden to hit the MBP with a hammer 

Dave