Using SharpCap and a light panel to capture flats for EAA

[@milllworks]

So glad I found this demonstration. I bought an A3 light panel last year, but it was too bright, tried an inexpensive dimmer which really just made the panel flicker, so I just put it all back in its box and kind of forgot about it. Your video inspired me to dig it back out and make a dedicated “flats light panel” just like yours, even down to the sheets of paper and binder clips. Tested it with my AsiAir Plus and it worked perfectly. Many thanks.

[@cesaralvarez6956]

Glad to hear it helped you

[@charlesburlison-rush1281]

Excellent demonstration and thanks for doing this. I have the same telescope as you and although I don't have an LED panel (yet) I might just get away with using a flood light at the back of my house which just so happens to be near the telescope :)

[@sall.5955]

Hi Cesar Great video. There is one point of confusion. You said that you use a gain = 0, but in the video your show your gain = 200. Can you clarify Thanks, Sal

[@bryen379]

Great tutorial!

[@ru33erman]

Great tutorial, thank you very much. Quick question: If taking individual frames instead of a live stack in SC, do you have to take individual flat frames for each light frame? Sorry, it might sound like a silly question, but I am still trying to figure out the best way to use SC. Thanks.

[@randallpatrickc]

I see that flip mirror - is the a Baader? Very interesting vid - great explanation. Just looking into EAA. Would it be possible to have a camera and an EP in a flip mirror diagonal? I wonder if I can use (say) a 2” 40mm EP to find (love star hopping) an object, look at it for a bit then flip to the camera and EAA out the details? Is that feasible? I wonder how you would handle focus swapping between the two. Can you focus an image in SharpCap?

[@cesaralvarez6956]

Yes it is a Baader flip mirror. Yes, you should be able to have an eyepiece. You would have to refocus each time you switched. SharpCap does provide good focusing methods.

[@craiggoble3281]

Hello! Just the info I needed to start adding flats in SC. I do have a question though... I'm using a Galaxy tab with a lightbox app for my light source and I think my exposure is correct given the histogram location and the 'ok' message in SCs flat capture dialog box. I've taken flats numbering 10,20, and 30. What I'm experiencing is when I use any of these master flats combined with my light frame stack in DeepSkyStacker the vignetting seems to be overcompensated for. What I mean is that the resulting image is actually darker in the center and lighter as it moves to the edges. It's in essence the reverse of the vignetting in the original light frame. I guess I'm looking for something in the middle of the two but I'm at a loss as to how to achieve that. Any suggestions that you can share? Thanks so much! Craig

[@cesaralvarez6956]

Trying doing either a sky flat, where you point the scope at the sky at dusk. Or you can do a t-shirt flat, where you put a one t-shirt over the end of your scope. See if those give different results.