Will be installing CCD Commander tonight to ease the focusing-every-30 minutes pain!
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Good idea. I need to do that as well. Let me know how easy/hard it was.
I'm a little reluctant at times to add too much software/hardware as even simple stuff seems to require careful handling to continue being reliable. FSQ though is quite focus sensitive. Have you seen the Sharplock feature of ONAG guiders? It would be ideal for an FSQ.
At the moment, I'm programming 30 minutes worth of exposures into MaxIm DL and popping into the lounge room to check when that's done (I have a guider settle delay of 60 seconds between exposures) so it often ends up being closer to 45 minutes after 15 x 2 minute exposures. Once the sequence is complete, I just hit AquireStar in FocusMax and it does the rest. It truly is awesome watching the whole system work unattended (as unattended as I have it at the moment!). Once the pier goes in this weekend, I'll be able to set better east/west limits on the G-11 and make more use of time prior meridian flipping.
Astrophotography (despite the current camera woes) has become a lot of fun, again! And, thankfully, I have a very forgiving and understanding wife who doesn't make me feel guilty!
Next, is to employ an all-sky camera so I can remotely check when to pull the plug. The final destination, of course, is to build an observatory with a cloud/weather system integrated into the whole lot to shut/open the roof.
...Whatever floats 'yer boat is fair enough
