Aurora Flatfield Panels
Enjoy the perfect flat and say hello to a new era in Electro luminescence flat field science with the revolutionary Aurora Light panel or as we affectionately call them - an “Aurora”
The new Aurora Flatfield Panel is an advancement in the well known technology of EF flat field foils. Due to the huge demand from all over the world this new product line was especially designed to match the needs of astrophotography.
The Aurora Flatfield Panel is a new light source technology for taking flat field images for use in calibration of digital images. In brief, it is a thin Electro luminescence* foil which emits an even white light after an external voltage is applied to it.
* For more technical explanation and background on Electro Luminescence technology, please read the Wikipedia page about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescence
Some benefits of the Aurora Flatfield Panel over other flat field light devices:
- A perfectly even illuminated surface!
- A broad, continuous spectrum which may be used with emission line filters!
- Lightweight and easy to handle
- Inverter for 12V and 110/240V available - suited to both stationary and mobile use.
Example Applications of this technology by some of our customers:
Please read the short report about the Aurora foils here [PDF, 76KB] which was published in Nov 2010 issue of Astronomy Technology Today.
Example Applications from some customers:
What you get:
The Aurora Flatfield Panels are mounted in a very rigid frame consisting of virtually unbreakable plastic with an extra protection around the edge so your Aurora is very well protected during transport and travel. The opaque front plate gives you a more uniform brightness than the EL material alone. For very fast optical systems you will likely need to reduce the brightness by placing some sheets of paper in front of the EL sheet and the frame of the Aurora will keep them secure..
 Sizes:
The Aurora’s are round in shape – perfect for telescope tubes and the diameters are matched to fit the popular sizes of amateur telescopes. The following sizes are available:
- D 100mm (for Instruments up to 4")
- D 160mm (for Instruments up to 6")
- D 220mm (for Instruments up to 8")
- D 315mm (for Instruments up to 12")
- D 420mm (for Instruments up to 16")
Larger Aurora Flatfield Panels up to 60cm are possible upon request. Special custom made foils up to 1.5m diameter are possible also. (Upon special request, please send us an email)
Color
The light from the Aurora Flatfield Panels looks slightly blue/white. Most panels from other suppliers seem to be white to the human eye but the light is in fact made of discrete emission lines. Due to this the flat field EL panels from most other suppliers are not suitable for narrowband emission line filters. Here at Astronomik we have tested the products of all EL sheet manufacturers worldwide and selected these particular EL foils for our Aurora Flatfield Panels because they are the best for astronomical applications. The spectrum of the Aurora Flatfield Panels is not made of some emission lines (like most panels are) instead the EL material used in the Aurora Flatfield Panel has a very broad, continuous emission across the whole spectrum. This fact is what makes our Aurora Flatfield Panels great for narrowband emission line filters.
The three spectra below illustrate the difference between our continuous spectrum EL panels and typical EL panels with light generated with discrete emission lines present.
Spectrum of a bad foil
(but still looks white the the human eye!) |
 |
| Spectrum of a good foil (EF Foil) |
 |
Spectrum of a Aurora foil
(perfect :-)) |
 |
You can see the very broad emission of the new Aurora Flatfield Panel which is very well suited for the work with DSLR and cooled CCD cameras, working with Broadband or RGB filter and for work with narrow band emission line filters as well..
 Brightness
The brightness of the Aurora Flatfield Panel is matched to work best with typical light intensity levels produced after passing through filters. If you are working with light from the whole spectrum such as when using no filter or only a UV+IR blocked Luminance filter, you will likely have to the reduce the brightness of the panel. The brightness can be controlled electronically to some extent by reducing the input voltage of the inverter (12V inverter only). If the panel is still too bright for your setup, as may be the case with very fast instruments and/or very sensitive cameras, you should place one or more sheets of paper into the frame between the layer of white plexiglass and the EL material. The brightness is very even across the whole surface and it works well for the most critical imaging applications, even photometry or spectroscopy. (See application links above!)
Power
The Aurora Flatfield Panels are shipped as complete ready-to-use sets with a special matching inverter as a normal Wall-Transformer will not work. The Panel is illuminated by the external high voltage produced by the inverter. This high voltage however is produced at very low amperage, so there is no danger to you.
IMPORTANT: Please use the Aurora Flatfield Panels with the supplied matching inverter only. Connecting a panel to an inverter of the wrong size reduces the lifetime of the unit.
There are 12V inverters for all sizes of Aurora Flatfield Panels and for the large size units there are also 110/230V inverters available.
Purchased parts package
Your Aurora Flatfield Panel is shipped as a complete ready-to-use set. Each set consists of the mounted EL substrate, the matching inverter, all cables and an easy to understand printed manual.
|
