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LED panel for flats

a6400
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a6400

a6400

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Hi,

Looking for a good and cheap LED panel to use for flat frames taken with a lens and a miniature telescope.

Has anyone anything worth recommendation?

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Elp

Elp

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Any cheap usb powered led dimmable tracer panel off Amazon. Make sure it's dimmable, for reliable flats you'll still need to have diffusing material between the panel and the optics to dim the light further light tint/ND material, paper, perspex, t-shirt, anything that diffuses the light further without generating a pattern or reflection.

Edited by Elp
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Budgie1

Budgie1

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I've installed the "LightBox - for film displaying" app on my Android tablet and use that as a flat panel. 

It has sliders which allow you to change the colour temp & brightness and it gives an nice even light. Obviously this relies on your tablet being larger than your scope opening but it works really well and saves having to buy a flat panel. ;)

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MonsterMagnet

MonsterMagnet

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12 hours ago, a6400 said:

Someone in review mentioning " screen is dotty ". No issues with anything like that?

And do you just put some white paper to diffuse it?

 

I guess it's dotty but it seems to put out a consistent enough light, I use it on full power with a fairly thick white T-shirt which I think works well.

It could also be my flats aren't brilliant but from what I know and the histogram they seem to be fine.

MM

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Roy Foreman

Roy Foreman

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I use an LED photo light panel that I got from WEX, but I expect many other photo retailers will sell the same, or similar, thing. The A4 version is, if I remember correctly, around £30-40 and has three brightness levels. It is USB powered and far cheaper than dedicated flat panels, and on its dimmest setting does the job well with no T-shirs, paper or other such stuff needed. It can be used for scopes up to 7" aperture. I also have the A3 version for larger scopes. They are light weight and around 5mm thick. I think there is an A5 version as well.

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a6400

a6400

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1 hour ago, Roy Foreman said:

I use an LED photo light panel that I got from WEX, but I expect many other photo retailers will sell the same, or similar, thing. The A4 version is, if I remember correctly, around £30-40 and has three brightness levels. It is USB powered and far cheaper than dedicated flat panels, and on its dimmest setting does the job well with no T-shirs, paper or other such stuff needed. It can be used for scopes up to 7" aperture. I also have the A3 version for larger scopes. They are light weight and around 5mm thick. I think there is an A5 version as well.

I think the idea of using tshirt or paper is to diffuse the light more and not make it dimmer.

 

Overall asking for specific recommendations to buy something already tried by users.

Want my panel to be even.

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Elp

Elp

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The Amazon ones are fine, I've got two of them and I also use a 294mc camera which is extremely difficult to calibrate if your flats are wrong. No need to spend any more money on a specific astro one, a lot of people don't even use a panel and take sky flats but that takes more effort.

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Nigella Bryant

Nigella Bryant

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2 hours ago, MonsterMagnet said:

I guess it's dotty but it seems to put out a consistent enough light, I use it on full power with a fairly thick white T-shirt which I think works well.

It could also be my flats aren't brilliant but from what I know and the histogram they seem to be fine.

MM

That's what I use too, it's brilliant 

Nigella 

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a6400

a6400

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4 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

That's what I use too, it's brilliant 

Nigella 

I will get this one then.

Any idea what else to use instead of a t-shirt?

Maybe sticking few sheets of printer paper will do the job?

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Elp

Elp

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I use acrylic sheets, one black, one grey, two opal, chose this because they're solid so won't crease but I did manage to crack one of them when it fell off the dew shield whilst taking flats as they're very smooth. As mentioned in my first reply you can also use ND (neutral density) sheet, similar principle but much thinner.

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a6400

a6400

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Just got the panel but I'm confused because it's not like my previous one where the whole thing was giving just white light.

Here it's a lot of dots with the dark stuff around.

Are you guys sure this is good for flats? 😃

IMG_3861.jpeg

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Nigella Bryant

Nigella Bryant

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1 hour ago, a6400 said:

Just got the panel but I'm confused because it's not like my previous one where the whole thing was giving just white light.

Here it's a lot of dots with the dark stuff around.

Are you guys sure this is good for flats? 😃

IMG_3861.jpeg

That's different from the one I have, is it at it's brightest? Perhaps cover with a sheet of tracing paper and then you'll have to adjust your exposure time, histogram and make up some flat's of different lengths of exposure. 

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Elp

Elp

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On 25/01/2024 at 16:22, a6400 said:

Here it's a lot of dots with the dark stuff around.

Are you guys sure this is good for flats?

Both of mine are like this, I've yet to have an issue with them taking flats, as per my previous posts you have to diffuse the light. Have you even tried taking flats with it yet?

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PeterC65

PeterC65

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These light pads do vary in quality. A few months ago I bought one from Amazon that turned out to have a gradient across it so I sent it back.

My wife has an A3 light pad that she uses for drawing and it gives a very even light distribution with continuously variable illumination levels so I've recently bought the A4 version which performs just as well. The brand is Huion. Their light pads are relatively expensive but there is currently a 20% discount on them at Amazon.

I haven't used this light pad to capture flats yet as I'm putting the finishing touches to two painted wooden cylinders that I will double sided tape to the light pad to allow it to be hooked over the end of my scopes and centred. The A4 light pad should be just big enough to use with the 8" Newtonian if it is well centred.

 

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