Here’s my setup at 5:30 am this morning. Taking good flats is key. I had been using the dawn sky to shoot flats for some time. EKOS has a feature where it will shoot flats of any desired ADU value. I’ve found that a median ADU value of 32,000 is perfect for my setup. I found this value through trial and error, by taking flats ad different ADU values, then calibrating with them to see what the results were. Anything above 24,000 overcorrected, and anything less than 20,000 under corrected, so I’m right in the middle now.

I recently discovered this really awesome and inexpensive light source for flats. It’s worked like a charm.

A3 Light Box by AGPtek - currently $47.99

First off, A3 is large enough to cover the front of most large scopes. It’s 11.69” x 16.53” and it’s a flat evenly lit LED panel with three built in brightness settings. It can be powered by the A/C plug it comes with, or through USB plugged into your laptop.

In the photo above I have it plugged into the laptop, and am taking my flats through EKOS. This makes capturing flats quick and easy.

Within EKOS, I build a camera sequence for all my filters, 25 images each, auto exposure set to ADU value 32,000. Then I run the sequence. Within seconds it measures the light from the frame, and knocks out 25, then switches filters, measures the light again, and bangs out another 25 frames. In about 2-5 minutes I can capture all my flats in one go.

Below are the two sequences I captured for the evening (Double Cluster, and M33). While short at under 2 hours each, you can see that they are clean and well calibrated thanks to the easy flats system I’ve been using.