Dark Filter for Making Darks, Making Flats Remotely

I have a "dark filter”. It does work for taking flats at night, but in broad daylight my ZWO EFW leaks enough light to be visible in the darks. In other words, the limiting factor is not the filter (which is a piece of aluminum, so perfectly opaque), but the rest of the hardware.

I'd recommend a flip-flat for any refractor. It will keep dust levels down, allow for fantastic automatic flats which you need to take for every filter that you use so not relying on a wall panel is a nice thing (also allows for a rotator to be used).

I never took remote darks without paying for remote hands to do so.   I left a heavy duty outside capable telescope cover in my gear basket, and I had them cover everything when parked.  With the flip flat cover closed, camera on cool and the scope cover strangled around the mount i was able to take darks If i needed too but I only did this once and never again… big expense for no reward on a cmos camera.  I did this on a cool winter night when the observatory wasn't open so residual heat from tec cooler didn't make the entire thing warm up.

your remote obsevatory if hosting with one of the commercial ones probably has a pretty standard way of helping you achieve remote darks and may even remove camera and put it in a box to assist if you go that route.

For the darks just use the HA or SII filter at night when the roof is closed (eg bad weather) and there wont be any light leaks.
For the flats, skyflats work fairly well, actually most of the times better than with a led panel for me.

edit - wow didnt notice the last comment gave my exact same advice

Jerry Gerber

I do use a dark filter in my filter wheel.   I have not seen any big problems with light leaks.  I only take them at night, not during the day time.  However since the  exposures I take tend to be fairly short, a small light leak would not be a big problem for me.  Also, it is nice to be able to get fresh dark frames any time I want.

bob

I have used the DSD on my Epsilon in a dark home observatory during the day and with an S2 in place. It works fine since it has a very tight seal compared to other flip flat devices. At F3.3 that is a pretty tough test.

OTOH, I also have a Moravian at my remote site since there is nothing better than an actual shutter….