Is there a feature like this for autofocus? If not it would be nice

[yomamma]

In my sequences I normally take an hour's worth of images then run an autofocus routine.

In our transition to clear fall skies, we get clear skies then a bank of thin clouds will roll thru then it will clear again in about 5 to 10 minutes. If I am running an autofocus routine during this time it will fail and I believe that the focuser is left in it's last position.

It would be nice to have an option to allow the focuser to return to its last start position if it fails to find a new good focus position. At least the focus is no worse than when you began the autofocus, and it should not be that far off for anyone that frequently focuses during their sequence. WIth the focus point being left at the end on fail, the next focus run will start far beyond the proper focus point and will fail also so you can never recover.

There may be a way to make the Sequencer do this but I have not seen it.

Thanks for the help

[admin]

Hi,

exactly which sequencer steps are you using for the focus? I thought I had changed them all to return to the original position on failure, but maybe I missed one (I presume you are using an up-to-date SharpCap 4.1?).

cheers,

Robin

[yomamma]

Not on 4.1 yet sorry. Had it installed but had 4.0 on quick access and I have not been paying attention. Will swap thanks.

I feel like at this point my sequences are becoming bullet proof. They will continue to run thru cloudy times and come out and tracking will pick back up. Lens was covered with dew but it made it to park the mount.

The best part is that now I can run two or three sessions every night and I don’t have to be awake to watch over it. I can collect more data than I can process.