Experiences using Voyager to orchestrate

[DJT (David)]

Hi
One of my imaging goals this year is to automate refocusing. It’s as simple as that. You can’t do it from within Maxim or FocusMax without scripting by the looks things.

I already have Maxim DL for capture and guiding and setting up a sequence and I use it with Focusmax which works really well.

I will purchase full pinpoint to use acquire star to help with autofocus routines in FocusMax.
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What interests me about Voyager is that as well as developing modules for autofocus using its own methods, it also appears to trigger routines using my existing software. That’s where the Orchestration piece fits.

I have seen threads talking about setup to use native functionality but can anyone share their experiences setting up Voyager to work with MaximDL 6 and FocusMaxV4?

If we can keep this thread to discussing Voyager experiences rather than recommending SGP or other software I would really appreciate it.

Thanks, any input will be gratefully received.

David

[lazjen (Chris)]

I can't help you with the specific focusing software you want to use (I just use the internal Voyager options), however, in case you get no response here, you could try asking on the Voyager forums for others who have done what you want?

[peter_4059 (Peter)]

I've switched from SGP to Voyager and I'm using its internal wide field focus routine. It seems to be very good and robust.

I'm close to getting Voyager to be completely automated from start to finish and have had two almost perfect completely unattended nights with 5 targets each night. The learning curve is quite steep so be prepared if you go down that path.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

Again, I can't help with calling Focusmax from Voyager, but I can say I have found the Voyager focus routines to be very good. On my SCT I use either the full field averaging focus for larger objects (Similar to SGP but better in my experience) or the "V curve" method which characterises your optics either side of focus and then focuses on a single, centered star and is usually faster than the full field method. On my refractor which produces a much flatter field I use the V curve method exclusively.

Regardless of using Voyager's native focusing routines or external software called from within Voyager, triggering it in normal use (Where you set up a sequence that you either run directly, or call from a dragscript) is as simple as ticking the box in the sequence to have Voyager inject a focus run on starting the sequence and then in another tab, what focus method you want it to use and what other conditions to trigger it (Time, temperature change, number of subs since last focus run etc)

My SCT is very temperature sensitive and the focuser has no temperature sensor so I waste a little time in the night by having it focus every 30 minutes (50 sharp 300 second subs in a winters night being better than 45 sharp ones, 15 OK ones and 5 rubbish ones) and the refractor focuses every 2 degrees temperature change or once every two hours. Even through a NB filter the frac focus run would not cost more than a couple of 600 second subs in a night, RGB focusing takes maybe two minutes each time.

[DJT (David)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

I can't help you with the specific focusing software you want to use (I just use the internal Voyager options), however, in case you get no response here, you could try asking on the Voyager forums for others who have done what you want?

Thanks, I will give that a go.

Originally Posted by peter_4059

I've switched from SGP to Voyager and I'm using its internal wide field focus routine. It seems to be very good and robust.

I'm close to getting Voyager to be completely automated from start to finish and have had two almost perfect completely unattended nights with 5 targets each night. The learning curve is quite steep so be prepared if you go down that path.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you can getting a lot of value from it. I am trying to remember a time when the learning curve was not steep with anything to do with this hobby 😆

Originally Posted by The_bluester

Again, I can't help with calling Focusmax from Voyager, but I can say I have found the Voyager focus routines to be very good. On my SCT I use either the full field averaging focus for larger objects (Similar to SGP but better in my experience) or the "V curve" method which characterises your optics either side of focus and then focuses on a single, centered star and is usually faster than the full field method. On my refractor which produces a much flatter field I use the V curve method exclusively.

Regardless of using Voyager's native focusing routines or external software called from within Voyager, triggering it in normal use (Where you set up a sequence that you either run directly, or call from a dragscript) is as simple as ticking the box in the sequence to have Voyager inject a focus run on starting the sequence and then in another tab, what focus method you want it to use and what other conditions to trigger it (Time, temperature change, number of subs since last focus run etc)

My SCT is very temperature sensitive and the focuser has no temperature sensor so I waste a little time in the night by having it focus every 30 minutes (50 sharp 300 second subs in a winters night being better than 45 sharp ones, 15 OK ones and 5 rubbish ones) and the refractor focuses every 2 degrees temperature change or once every two hours. Even through a NB filter the frac focus run would not cost more than a couple of 600 second subs in a night, RGB focusing takes maybe two minutes each time.

Good share of your experiences. Thanks.