When to take flats ?

[AlistairW]

Hello,

My imaging train is closed, so only the main objective lens is exposed. This got me thinking, - instead of after an image capture session, followed by doing flats (with a pannel) at 3am  outdoors - would it make sense to bring the scope indoors, let it warm up, and then, sometime next day take the flats ? - or do the flats need to be done at the same time , to account for all the dust bunnies etc..,

Thanks

Alistair

[ecuador]

Normally you would be all right, however I've had a dust bunny move just by pointing the scope to a different part of the sky after taking flats, which meant applying the frames left me with both a small dark crescent (not the classic dust bunny) where it went, and a bright crescent where it was before - when I was taking the flats.

I wasn't worried about dust etc because I was taking flats, so I had not tried to clean my optics & sensor. If yours is relatively clean, you won't have a problem. In effect, temperature does not matter for flats.