Artesky 250 mm Premium Flat Field Generator LED Lighting

Artesky Flat Field Generator with LED technology - dimmable

The premium flat field generator has the newest LED technology. The image is perfectly white and flicker-free, allowing even short exposure times. The generator offers 250 mm perfectly evenly illuminated area.

A big advantage compared to other LED flat field boxes is the precise dimmer at the back side of the box. The control box offers:

On-off switch

Precise 1:10 dimmer (premium version) for exact brigthness adjustment

Digital voltmeter for perfect brigthness reproduction and thus reproducible exposures

12 V DC connection - perfect for field Operation

Video about Artesky Flat Boxen on Youtube

How do I get a good flat field image?

A good flat compensates for edge shading (vignetting), but also for darkening caused by dust on the filter, sensor or corrector. The background becomes even, the contrast can be raised further to make finer details visible in faint nebulae. The following basic settings should be noted:

The ISO or gain setting must be the same as for the lights, i.e. the actual astrophotography.

Telescope, camera and accessories, such as filters, off-axis guider etc., must be the same as for the actual exposure, also the position of the focuser should be unchanged.

The exposure time should be so short that nothing is "burned out", i.e. overexposed. Only in this way can the flat unfold its full effect. We recommend an exposure of 30-50%. The flat should not be burned out, but it should also not have any unexposed areas.

How do I find the right exposure time with the shooting software, for example Maxim DL?

The ADU value (Analog Digital Units) helps here. Every capture program shows this value when you move the mouse over the image. In the center of the image, where the illumination is highest, the ADU value is highest. The longer you expose, the higher this value becomes. If the ADU value is higher than the maximum value of the camera, the image is overexposed. A camera with 16 bits has a max. ADU value of 65536, one with 14 bits has 16384, one with 12 bits only 4096.

The exposure time of the flat should be so short that in the middle of the flat the ADU value is at most 50% of the maximum value of the camera. Then the flat looks well exposed. We recommend to take at least 10 flats per exposure and to process them to a "master flat".

If the flatfield box is too bright, that means it always produces overexposed images, then a white paper, which is fixed in the flatfield box, helps. This will dim the light and allow for slightly longer exposure times.