Hands free? Don't think you're close yet Mike...
Welcome to the world of DSO imaging. To do it right takes dedication and patients. There is no such thing as simplicity in this game. Now that you’ve tried it, you can appreciate the effort involved. Seriously though, the more money you throw into hardware/software, the easier you can make it, but in return typically technical complexity increases.
Take computerised focusing as an example. While some may disagree, computerised focusing is the only way to accurately focus a telescope for DSO imaging purposes. Computerisation will guarantee that you’ll hit the critical focus zone every time (and usually under 90 seconds). However to achieve this you need a stepper motor mounted to a focuser that can be computer controlled. Then, the software to control the stepper motor. Software like FocusMax is free. It’s not too difficult to set up, but I’ve had quite a few headaches building a good focus v-curve model – thus the complexity.
Another example is telescope pointing. I couldn’t tell you the last time I looked through a telescope to see where it’s pointing and if it’s framed the object correctly. I use software to handle this. The software (ACP/Pinpoint) takes a picture to match stars in the field, then plate-solves these stars against a well known accurate catalogue. If the original image indicates the pointing is out by sub arc second accuracy, the telescope is instructed to move to the exact position (and in the process builds a pointing model for future corrections). Again, more complexity in software configuration.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in automated image acquisition. When all software/hardware components work harmoniously together, the imaging sessions are very productive. However, if one component fails, precious time is wasted as they’re typically dependant on each other. I’ve shared your frustration before. I suggest making small steps as you advance. You’ve probably already realised that acquiring the data is mundane work (when things are working well), it’s the image processing where things get tricky (and even more frustration).
Remind me why I decided to enter into DSO astrophotography again...
