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After extensive testing over the past week and much advice and support from IIS members , DSS forum and APT forum I’ve finally nailed good calibration with my set up in Sydney using the 2600MC , L Extreme filter and my trusty 6” newt
Out of the combinations and methods of calibration , the only one that gave me a nice even field , removed vignetting and dust donuts after an initial stretch in Startools was Lights , Flats and Bias captured in my Capture software APT
All other calibration methods like Flats and Dark Flats or Flats and Darks didn’t work , some overcorrected , some just darkened the field and left vignetting etc....
My settings in APT Flats Aid were as follows -
ADU target 22,000 to 25,000 ( 22,000 ADU was easier to reach using the light panel ) Using the recommended 50% or 32,768 ADU didn’t work with my light panel etc...
Exposures reached target from 6 sec to 15 sec
Histogram range was from around 8800 to 41,000
I used a Huion A3 dimmable light sketch panel
One or 2 layers of satin nylon cloth stretched over OTA
Bias Frames were captured using my 2600MC shortest exposure of 0.000032 sec ( I tried 0.1 sec and even 1 sec and they all worked fine )
I captured 40 Flats and 40 Bias
Lights frames were 50 x 180 sec dithered guided subs
2600MC was set in Ascom to highest dynamic range or Gain 0 and cooled to-10C
Stacked in DSS ( you just load in your lights , flats and bias and DSS does the rest )
Stacked file was then loaded into Startools, an initial stretch and quick wipe of gradients and the field was clean as a whistle ( excluding normal noise floor which is minimal anyway ) no anomalies
Next hurdle is Calibration without the filter
See attached photos including the Startools initial stretched image before my processing workflow
Thanks again to all that contributed
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