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Originally Posted by Paul Haese
1. Do I need ACP before I can autofocus? Am I right in thinking that maxim combined with focus max can automate focus without my imput?
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As Fred and James note, you can autofocus with Maxim and FocusMax, but its not at the level of complete automation of which I believe you are trying to achieve. You still need something to trigger an autofocus routine and thats where observatory automation software comes in. James is spot on, you need to ensure FocusMax works flawlessly before overlaying any automation tools. If it doesn't work in this manner, automation is next to useless.
Do you have FocusMax performing the AcquireStar routine today where it platesolves and slews to an appropriate magnitude star and commence the focus run, then slew back to the original position? If not, get this sorted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
2. Do I need ACP immediately to get focus to swing onto a GV2 star and then back to the imaging target? I think this is a yes but wanted to know what others think.
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No. As noted above, FocusMax will do all that. It will platesolve to determine its current position and determine 3 or more candidate focus stars. It will then slew (and center if desired) to the first suitable star based on configured parameters such as altitude and magnitude. The focus routine then runs, once complete it will slew back to the original position. G2V star? The star doesn't need to be G2V. Usually something between mag 4 and 7 will work fine. Don't want it to be too dim as focus exposures will be too long, too bright and the stellar profile will not be calculated correctly. Most observatory automation software will simply pass off the decision to FocusMax as to of which star to use focus to FocusMax.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
3. What autofocus systems do other use? This seems the best system and I am trying to take the advice of Mark, who has been 100% correct with other automation systems in the past.
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FocusMax is the defacto standard for autofocus systems. MaximDL has elementary focusing algorithms as does CCDSoft but they don't compare to the functionality achieved in FocusMax.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Haese
The main idea is that I want to be able to set this up and then not have to check focus every hour myself. Its all part of the automation process and leading to the end point. Data collection uninterrupted by SNAFU.
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Yep. Easily done with observatory automation software. You are on the right track, just take small steps to begin with. When ready establish filter offsets to introduce even greater image acquisition efficiency with your focusing.
If its of any relevance, I use ACP Scheduler with ACP coupled to FocusMax. The set up is autonomous. I upload plans and out spits data. I don't manually start imaging runs nor determine what target to shoot and when. The Scheduler dispatcher process does this based on plan input such as moon up/down/avoidance, object altitude, etc. I recognise that such a level of automation is not everyone's cup of tea as some like to sit beside their imaging rig, watch guide stars, logs and make subsequent equipment tweaks. For me, its not the journey as I've travelled the road before, its the destination (output result) such as post processing where I prefer to spend my time.