SharpCap Forums

I’m just getting started in autoguiding and astrophotography in general and have purchased the ZWO ASI120mm Mini with the ZWO 30F4 Mini Scope. I’m just trying to get it focused correctly. I tried to focus on the full moon last night, using SharpCap and could never get an image that looked in focus. Though I was focusing back and forth on both sides of the sharpest image I could get. I tried a few days ago to focus on a distant tower in the daytime. And again I was focusing to the blur on both sides of the correct focus, but the focused image was not sharp. Am I doing something wrong? I've only tried to polar align once using SharpCap and was able to do so but I'm concerned that the focus is not as good as it could be.

You'll need to add the nosepiece to your mini guide camera and then still space it out a ways with the 30F4 guidescope. I use a 1.25" parfocal ring meant for eyepieces to make this easy and predictable. I've attached some photos that might help. With Sharpcap (or the like) on continuous exposure mode, you can just position the 30F4 focus somewhere in the ballpark and slide the camera out and dial it in on the fly in just a minute or so. Once there, lock the camera in place with the two screws and you're good to go.

Good luck!