[Stonius (Markus)]

Hi there,

Everything I've read about Bahtinov masks says they're great for nailing focus, but no-one really uses them for visual. In fact, many say 'don't bother' for visual.

This surprises me. Don't people want the very sharpest image they can get? It seems to me the circle of confusion would be limited by the atmospheric conditions anyway, so it can't be to do with cameras having potentially a higher resolution than the human eye.

I mean, think about it - typically the extra wobble induced by adjusting the focuser obscures any fine details, so you rock back and forth through focus a few times, before settling on what you think is 'pretty close'. But it's never exact, is it? Yes, I know, that's what battery powered autofocusers are for, but I'm trying to have a scope that doesn't have more wires and machines attached than a person undergoing triple-bypass surgery.

So why?

Markus