Alternative to SGP, or just suck it up?

[The_bluester (Paul)]

At least I can learn now without one eye on the countdown clock of the demo version.

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Hi Paul ,
It's is a shame you didn't give N.I.N.A ago I found it was a lot easier to use and to set up, good luck with SG Pro.
Ian

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I might well try it out later, but for the moment with SGP I have something that covers the need that I had to deal with, which was auto focus that copes with the idiosyncrasies of an SCT, mainly the shadow of the secondary, which possibly applies to newts and RCs as well, probably more so to scopes with bigger obstructions.

I have not quite got a reliable shot to try out another suite between now and new moon when I really want to have something that works. I have been fiddling around shooting some targets that I really want to grab a couple of full nights of data on this lunar cycle.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

I had a look at N.I.N.A. but it does appear at least presently to be missing two things vital to the SCT, first is the ability to reverse the focuser movement (And step count) and second is backlash compensation for the focuser, unless I just have not spotted those settings. The SCT needs a combination of both to focus cleanly and reliably.



The only software I have found so far that does both of those plus whole of image HFD averaging is SGP.

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Originally Posted by The_bluester

I had a look at N.I.N.A. but it does appear at least presently to be missing two things vital to the SCT, first is the ability to reverse the focuser movement (And step count) and second is backlash compensation for the focuser, unless I just have not spotted those settings. The SCT needs a combination of both to focus cleanly and reliably.



The only software I have found so far that does both of those plus whole of image HFD averaging is SGP.

Fair enough Paul I will have to admit SG is a good program and I all most got it instead but I found N.I.N.A to be easier to set and run ,I don't know what version you were looking at but they are up to V 1.8 and have added a lot of things to it since I first looked at it when it was v1.6.
clear sky's ian