Astrophotography 8" Circle EL Panel Kit

The Astrophotography 8" Circle Flat Frame Kit is a great, portable solution to take flats in the field. The even light distribution allows photographers to easily create subframes to take out the noise produced by ambient light and other environmental factors.

Often times, photographers using this kit want a thin piece of frosted acrylic to help diffuse the light evenly. Now you can add this acrylic to the kit by selecting on the drop down window. Depending on customer's setup, sometimes the phosphor particles (which is part of granular nature of EL Technology) can be seen due to the power of the scope. We recommend adding the acrylic to help reduce the granular effect, and it also helps soften and even out the light. This makes the light a nice natural white light which is not too cool (blue) or warm (yellow). Using the drop down windows, you can easily customize the kit exactly the way you want. Add a second piece of acrylic to sandwich the panel for extra durability in the field. You can customize the inverter options to plug into your scope's 12v output, or use battery options or AC powered plug in options. Choose the kit that's right for you!

Our new '22 and newer kits come with a handy scratch resistant carrying sleeve which will help clean the acrylic surface before taking your flats, and it also doubles as a way to store your panel safely in your gear bag!

This kit has a number of options to best suit your individual needs. First, choose between one or two pieces of frosted acrylic. The first piece that is included is typically meant to be installed on the front side of the panel. PRO-TIP: When mounting to the acrylic, make sure to push all air bubbles off the panel surface with a squeegee to prevent shadowing. Use the acrylic side with the textured surface to adhere directly to the panel for best results. The second piece of acrylic is meant to sandwich the panel between two pieces of acrylic for maximum durability.

Second, the kit comes with various inverter options. The standard 9V Battery Pack + Inverter combo is a simple standalone solution that has a brightness adjustment wheel to easily select the required brightness. The 12v Inverter options uses our Mondo 12V EL Inverter which also has a brightness adjustment knob, but the knob allows for a little finer tuning of the brightness. You can either purchase this inverter as a standalone inverter and plug into your existing on-board 12v output, OR you can purchase with additional power options like the rechargeable 12v battery, or AC Adapter. We recently added two options for people wanting to control the brightness externally. First, the 12V PWM inverter option is a dimmable inverter which requires a microcontroller or other PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) devices in order to dim the inverter like ASIAIR devices. Keep in mind, this inverter is a 12V input. The last option available is a recently added 5V USB Device. This device can be powered with standard power bank type batteries, among many other USB chargers. This inverter is especially useful when customers have software or microcontroller systems (like Arduino, etc.) that allow the inverter to be controlled (and dimmed) externally. The PWM inverter and USB+ inverters do not have their own brightness adjustment knob. The USB+ inverter does allow you to buy with an inline touch dimmer, which you can press and hold to adjust the brightness up or down.