Hello Stan, You can indeed take flats during daylight. The problem is getting the illumination down to a value you can use. The larger the telescope the harder it is. Another problem is unless you have the optics all set, focused and such, you will need to wait until you get things set and that may mean after dark. You could go ahead and observe all night and take the flats the next day, but I am too old for that. :-) A light box offers the convenience of being able to take flats anytime you want. Plus you can make it so you can adjust the brightness. Jeff At 11:04 -0700 07/15/2007, Stan Gorodenski wrote: >It just occurred to me, why not take a flat during the daylight? One >would have to reduce the light coming in, maybe with a mylar solar >filter. Does the sun in the sky create too much of a flux gradient >across the chip no matter where you might take a flat in the sky? There >obviously is a problem with this method since it does not seem to be >mentioned in the sources I read. >Stan -- Jeff Hopkins HPO SOFT Counting Photons http://www.hposoft.com/Astro/astro.html Hopkins Phoenix Observatory 7812 West Clayton Drive Phoenix, Arizona 85033-2439 U.S.A. (623)849-5889 (623) 247-1190 (Fax) www.hposoft.com -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.