As mentioned before, when I was shooting DSLR (which is still fun and something I want to keep doing), I re-used flats - sometimes for a year or more. I had no issues.
I read a thread online about using LED light boxes (also called artist tracing boxes or tracing pads) as a cheap and easy way to genereate flats. It works incredibly well! I might still be able to re-use flats wtih the ASI071MC camera, but if not, it's super-easy to use this lightbox at the end of the night.
I bought this LED light box on Amazon for $22.39 USD. The long-winded Amazon description is
"Tikteck A4 Ultra-thin Portable LED Light Box Tracer USB Power Cable Dimmable Brightness LED Artcraft Tracing Light Box Light Pad for Artists Drawing Sketching Animation Stencilling X-rayViewing"
Amazon link is
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M26S3VY/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1The light box is just barely big enough to cover my 8se. (Larger scopes will need a larger version of an LED light box - which is available). I use a medium brightness and the brightness setting is preserved between sessions. Brightness is easily adjustable. It's USB powered, so I just connect it to my laptop, or to the USB port on my Power Tank 17.
I use two white t-shirts as diffusers for both the 80ED refractor and the 8se SCT. You can see that I use big rubber bands to keep the shirts tight. It helps to smooth out as many of wrinkles on the shirts after you put the rubber bands on. Just tug a bit on the shirts to pull them tight under the rubber bands.
Again, using the LED light box is super-easy (takes just a few minutes) and it's something that can be done inside or outside depending on your setup. I also found that when I am out in the observatory, the light box makes a nice area light to use while I am cleaning up at the end of the night.
Hope this is helpful. CS!
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