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Old 22-04-2022, 08:37 PM
Startrek (Martin)
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Startrek is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Sydney and South Coast NSW
Posts: 6,058
Adam,
I spent months working out the best calibration frames for my 2600MC
I never bothered to look at the flat frame , only the stacked calibrated frame after a stretch to check the field
My flat frames by themselves looked crap
I tried Flats , Darks , Flat Darks
Then Flats and Flat Darks
Then Flats , Darks , Bias
Then Flats and Bias
Flats and Bias worked the best for this camera , but , I was using a ADU target of 28,000 to 32,000 ( 2600MC has at 16bit digital analog converter and has a max ADU of 65,536 so recommended ADU target should be around 32,000 or 1/3 to 1/2 along the Histogram , this was totally wrong !!! )
At 32,000 I was way over exposing the Flats , ended up over half way on the Histogram
I adjusted my ADU target in APT down to 20,000 to 21,000 and the Histogram ended up with an ADU range of 8,500 to 31,500 , which is spot on between black and white points
So with and without filters I use an ADU target of 20,000 to 21,000 and end up with a Flat exposure of 0.2 to 0.5 sec for no filter and 7 sec to 13 sec with the L Extreme filter
I calibrate my Flats with Bias frames ( Bias frames set to 0.000032 sec which is the min exposure for the 2600MC )
Usually 40 to 50 Flats and 50 to 70 Bias frames
Lights , Flats and Bias loaded into DSS and bingo , nice flat field after a stretch in Startools
Took me a month or so of experimenting but found the right combo, settings and method
Sorry can’t help you with Mono but I know the ( the Bluester) Paul has the 2600MM
and he uses Flats with Bias frames too

Cheers
Martin
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