Autofocus routine based on temp

It seems autofocus routine runs without taking temp into account.

Say I image last night at 10c ambient. Focuser at 10000.

I start tonight, at 15c ambient. Focuser is still at 10000 (from last night). Autofocus routine runs, then figures it ain’t close, overcorrects, runs again, determines it ain’t close, then moves back again, and finally is able to complete. But like 20-30 images. Say ends up at position 13000.

Why not store previous autofocus points relative to temp and build a model, so when routine starts up at the beginning of a sequence, it knows to move close to autofocus point for that temp and begin the routine from there?

Not a big deal when the temp is consistent, but when there are big swings day to day… … … …

1 Like

+1
I have been manually keeping a list of temps/steps, and moving the focuser at the start of an imaging run to a rough focus position. This saves about 5 minutes of failed focus runs, as bscholl says.
Eric

Good idea this. I’ve only got into autofocusing recently on my 190MN and my RedCat51, but I’ve had similar issues. An even bigger change happens when I put a filter like an l-exTreme in the train, but since that is a manual action, I don’t know how you would cope with that other than manually. As a side issue, it it possible to interrogate SGPro to find out the focus positions through the night (my scopes are unattended as I like my sleep! :grimacing:)?

Yes! I have also been keeping my own list of starting positions based on current temp - doesn’t seem to be any reason SGP couldn’t automate the initial starting position…

This is on our “approved” features list. I can’t provide an estimate because it is behind several other things, but we do agree that this is a good idea.