Next Day Focus

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smithn00
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:29 pm

Next Day Focus

#1

Post by smithn00 »

I am using a QHY 174 GPS in an observatory enfironment. Last night I used a focus tool to get a very good focus. At the end of the session I left the focuser where it was. Tonight I will startup and focus will be near as good as it was last night. It seems to me that trying to find a new focuser posiion will cause me to move away from Best Focus Position no matter which scan direction I choose. How to handle that situation?
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admin
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Re: Next Day Focus

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

yes, that's true, because in order to validate that a focus position is 'best focus', the tool has to check some distance in both focus directions to make sure that it gets worse rather than better as you move in each direction.

The very latest updates to SharpCap 4.0 have a new 'automatic refocus' tool designed to help in just this situation.
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This will use the current position as the center point of a focus scan, and will use the settings from your last successful focus scan to set the parameters (number of steps, size of each step, focus tool to use, direction to scan, etc). Note that if you have been using an out-of-date version then the info about the last scan will not have been stored, so you will not be able to use this straight away.

cheers,

Robin
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