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Old 23-07-2011, 07:14 AM
gbeal
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gbeal is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 4,345
Hi Fahim,
while I'm no pro on this, I couldn't think as much as you have about this.
Granted, I use a cooled CCDm, but even so, try to keep it simple.
Typically I will shoot a series of subs, and "normally" they are 300 seconds. Occasionally I will do 600 or 900 seconds, but of late 300 seconds is where I'm at. The total might be 6 - 10 or even 20 subs.
At the end of the night, before I dismantle anything I shoot my flats, I use a "Multiweb made me buy it" EL Panel, and shoot about 10 frames. These are with the scope exactly as it was when I was shooting the "light subs", except I pint the scope towards the zenith and sit the EL Panel on the front objective.
Then I shoot my bias frames, again another 10. These are done with the scope capped, so no light enters.
With flats and bias it is my understanding you don not necessarily need to have the cooling/temperature the same. I normally do though.
Darks I shoot at some convenient time, as I can cool at will. I normally shoot about 5 - 10 of them as well, SAME temperature and exposure as the light subs. So in my case, darks are done at -10º and 300 seconds.
Being the tidy kiwi I am I make a sub-folder for each, "Bias", "Flat", and "Dark", and direct the respective frames to the respective folders.
Once done, I process, normally the next day, and use Images Plus, which makes a Master (Bias/Flat/Dark) for me. Once it has processed I delete the single Bias/Flats/Darks and just retain the Masters.
In my case I have occasionally used a "Library" of Bias and Darks, but never Flats, I shoot them every session.
Possibly your processing sequence depends a lot on your Processing software too, mine will vary from yours if we are using different, but the fact remains, shoot flats each time, and look at the Bias and Darks as a library if you want.
Gary
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