As I begin to take much longer exposures, the need for good flat images has become apparent. Dust specks on the camera lens and vignetting make a noticeable appearance once I start stretching images of extremely dim deep sky objects. To try to improve my flats, I purchased a studio softbox that perfectly fits atop my telescope. This is much easier than holding some kind of light up to the telescope, and it gives a much more even field with its light diffusing cover.
The flats look much more consistent. The following is an example that has been stretched, showing some dust specks and a bit of vignetting.
With these better flats, I was able to reprocess a few of my latest images, and the results turned out much better.
