Push To Assist is a game changer

[Spacetimewithrobert]

Whoever put this feature into 4.1 is my HERO!!!!!

I use a Celestron-era Losmandy G11 with the old stepper motors. I've tried so many different approaches to finding objects and getting them centered but the Push To Assist feature has put that problem to bed. Nay, put it in a coma. I'm free!!!

How do I use it?
I have a 50mm guidescope with a ZWO ASI 120mc. Lol, yep, that's all it takes to make this feature soar.

First I manually aim at a bright star near my target.

With a 2.5s exposure and 35 gain it plate solves with no issues on my windows 10 laptop using ASTAP as my solver.

I then turn on the Push To Assistant and without even looking at my setting circles just start moving the telescope and watching how far away I am in degrees on the laptop. Takes me about 2-3 minutes to center the object in my viewfinder, which is a way smaller field of view than my main scope so the object is dead-center once I'm done.

I mean, dude, this is like having a Nexus DSC or some other digital encoder at the cost of SharpCap annual fee. I was considering an ASAIR but yeaaaah no I'm sticking with sharpcap. So much love is obviously put into this program and I am loving it right back!!

If anyone is struggling with this feature, I hope this helps. Mind you, I use a DSLR for my main imaging and with that I could not use the push-to assistant since it needs to constantly take photos, which got me to try my guidescope instead. Holy crap I'm so glad I did that. Going out tonight!!!

Clear skies!!

[admin]

Hi,

thanks for posting and sharing how well it's working for you - great to hear things like this and a good tip to use the finderscope/guide cam!

clear skies,

Robin