Scheduled use of autofocusing

[umasscrew39]

Hi Robin

It would help a great deal if some day you can get SC to do autofocusing over selected time periods or after so many frames similar to SGP. Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part but that is literally the most important thing that prevents me from being almost fully automated with SC for extended periods of time. I know meridian flip is also important but automating autofocus at least allows me to step away from the computer for some period of time (e.g., 45 mins) before re-focusing.

Curious to hear if this could ever be done.

Regards,
Bruce

[admin]

Hi Bruce,


I've been very cautious about claiming to have autofocusing in SharpCap because what I really have is assisted focusing – autofocusing is much harder because you have to make sure that it works with no human intervention to stop it from doing stupid things. Assisted focusing helps you find exactly the right focus point, but there's a human brain in the loop spotting if the results look to be absolutely ridiculous.

I remember using the first versions of autofocusing in APT - you adjusted a few parameters and clicked on a button and it took a few frames, adjusted the focuser a bit took some more frames and then claimed that it found best focus in spite of being utterly and completely wrong. I was determined not to have an autofocus as bad as this in SharpCap!

If we ever get to the point of having an autofocus that works reliably and without intervention from the user then it will definitely be available in scripting and sequencing – but I think that is not really in sight just yet.

Cheers, Robin

[umasscrew39]

Well, what you just described is what I experienced last night trying SGP. I actually brought my image in focus using SC and then turned on SGP to see how the autofocuser would work. It said focus was good (as expected) but when it was setup to refocus every 45 minutes it was a disaster. I was hoping to do some overnight automation but unless I get better at SGP (which I found the whole process of how the autofocus works very convoluted) or another program is out there that does it correctly, that is not happening soon. The process in SC is so straightforward and quick to do.

[chongo228]

From what I read on the forums Voyager has been the only program to have a reliable auto-focus tool. Be interesting to know what they have done that other programs have not been able to.

SC tool seems pretty reliable so far. It is usually within about 10 to 30 steps of where I find focus using a mask.