The NINA Flat Wizard: The Fastest, Easiest Way to Shoot Flat Frames
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- Опубліковано 25 кві 2024
- Flat frames are used to calibrate dust and smudges, vignettes and light falloff. And because dust is an ongoing issue, new flats should be shot every morning. You need to shoot a set of 20-40 flats for each filter used overnight. It used to be a tedious, essential task, but the NINA Flat Wizard turns all of that into a single button push that takes only a moment.
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Waiting for more content ❤
Thank you! Always working on it.
I love NINA as before using it I never had any flats that worked now most of the time they work & my images have improved a heck of a lot. Like you I don't bother with darks as never felt the need to use them. Clear skies!!
Interesting.
Im a total noob but even i can use the flat wizard. Its pretty great.
splendide bravo👋👍
Thank you for the tutotial! As others have noted, I had been under the impression that gain should remain the same between yoru light frames and your flats. However, your logic seems sound and I will use that methed instead of running to my dresser for another t-shirt.
Quick comment: I think the "darks" on the flat wizard are actually for bias or "dark-flats" as there is no call to adjust temperature or exposure settings required with camerag "darks".
You may well be right. I've never used the option. The only calibration frames I presently use are flats and biases.
@@SKYST0RY How do you take Biases ? Aren't thse just like dark flats ? Thats what I use the "Darks" function on NINAs flat wizard.
@@KarlKyhl They are similar but you use a short exposure time. As with flats, I don't worry about gain when shooting biases.
I pretty much stretch some white cloth over my lens hood, display a white jpg on my tablet, set it to about 50% brightness, butt it up against my scope and press play in nina :)
Thanks for the video. Can you share links to buy this flat panel?
Sure thing: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07WQXFZN5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&th=1
Are the exposures and camera settings similar for a narrowband filter or dual band filter?
Because I live in an area with virtually no light pollution, I almost never touch narrow band, and when I do it's not for the reasons most persons do. When I use it, it's for either artistic purposes, like if I want to portray only how that frequency of light stands out in a region, or for more scientific purposes, such as screening for things. So, I rarely use NB filters and never bothered to shoot flats for them. Persons in light polluted areas could give you much more knowledgeable opinions about this.
The edge of your light panel seems to be inside the edge of your lens hood
It is a little undersized but never made any difference.
@@SKYST0RY i assumed you put it on like that just for that explanatory shot. Your hood likely to be wider than your aperture ;)
Honestly, your videos have helped me so much, i was hoping i could return a tiny part to you :) of course, you already have it addressed.
@@jesuschrist2284You are right. The hood is something like a centimeter wider than the actual front of the scope. I've never measured it exactly but thereabouts. That's probably why the light box still works just fine for making flats. However, I have found a much faster and easier way to shoot flats that I'll post in a few days.
I thought it was general practice to use the same gain on flats as you used for your lights?
That’s what they say. In practice, it is often impossible. If I shoot at night at unity gain (which I usually do), my camera cannot shoot a fast enough shutter speed to shoot flats with either a light box or sky illumination. I have found this notion that the gain is very important with flats to be one of many truisms in AP that doesn’t hold up under the scrutiny of testing. What matters is keeping your binning the same as your light frames, and setting a good light curve that reveals gradient and motes. A 33% mean on the light curve usually does it.
@SKYST0RY this would explain why I experienced such frustration trying to take flats for my ASI294MC-Pro, which generally need to be ~3", in combination with my Pegasus Astro Flatmaster. Setting 1 on the panel was too dim, whereas setting 2 was too bright. Lowering the gain would certainly help find that sweet spot much easier. I will have to give it a try when I put the 294 back in service!
@@d.fresh.750 Let me know how that goes. The 294 is a very good camera but I heard it can be a little finicky. I’ve never tried it.
@SKYST0RY Will do! I've taken some amazing images with mine, and I think I've even successfully processed a few images without flats. Most of my problems came in the beginning, from using the wrong driver. I think it was the ASCOM driver, that made the color output all wrong. My Eastern Veil Nebula came out basically purple & orange instead of aqua & red.