Homemade Light panel for small scopes.

[Gordon]

Here's a little project I made a while back.

I needed a 'flat screen' I could easily use to make my flats for AP (astrophotography). I had done the 't-shirt' thing and even installed a white panel about 5 feet away from the scope to shine a dim light on. Both worked but made for a bit of setup time. So I searched ebay and found a cheap "light box" used by artists for tracing. I had some 'prerequisites' for the panel. It needed to be inexpensive, adjustable illumination (for different filters) and USB powered. I found one for $18.00 USD and bought it. I then had to figure out how to keep it on the dew shield of the scope. So I made a 'cut out' the size of the dew shield from some old thick cardboard, and taped it to the edges of the light panel. Gave it a try but discovered that the panel had a tendency to show horizontal bars when illuminated. So I took 2 sheet of regular 'printer paper' and placed those underneath the cardboard cut out just to help smooth out the display. Now it works great. I can adjust the illumination to accommodate different filters and get my flats taken in short order.

[UlteriorModem]

That looks good Gordon! As long as you dont get any strobing or other artifacts from the LED's.

[Gordon]

That looks good Gordon! As long as you dont get any strobing or other artifacts from the LED's.

I've used it a dozen or so times and my flats are coming out great! It seems adding the paper to filter down the LEDs did the trick.

[Aidi]

I’ve been using one of these for a while now and also get great results. Rather than paper, I use one of those embroidery rings with a white T-shirt stretched inside it rather than paper

[bladekeeper]

That's pretty cool, Gordon!

[Lowjiber]

Nice Gordon. :thumb:

[helicon]

Looks great and it sounds like it is giving excellent results Gordon.