Now that SGPro 4.5 has been released we’ve been working on locking down the scope of changes and new features for SGPro 4.6. In addition, we would like to move toward smaller (but more frequent) releases with only one or two large-ish features per release.
Here’s where we landed on SGPro 4.6:
- Complete overhaul of the Auto Focus data collector. The Auto Focus routine works great until it doesn’t. Waited too long to focus? Having trouble tuning in all the right values? Any number of things can create a headache for you when Auto Focus runs under certain conditions, and the new collector aims to remedy that.
- An in-app Polar Alignment Wizard. This is a much-requested feature by SGPro users without permanent observatories. Additional details below.
Auto Focus Data Collection Overhaul
Without good data, Auto Focus will produce inconsistent and possibly even harmful (to current focus) results. The new collector aims to ensure that:
- Every run achieves focus
- Future runs learn from “recovered” runs.
It goes without saying that SGPro cannot handle ALL cases you throw at it, but if SGPro knows how to start in a focus zone that has ANY measurable data, you should be good to go.
Visually and for the perspective of settings, there are no differences here. The entirety of these changes are “under the hood (not visible to users)”.
This work is already largely complete and ready for test. SGPro 4.6 Beta will be out soon.
Polar Alignment Wizard
Mostly self-explanatory I suspect, but a brief summary: A Polar Alignment Wizard, built into SGPro, that will use an iterative series of plate solved frames and intuitive user prompts to make sure you are well aligned.
In terms of completeness, we have a mostly working protype for this work, but it needs quite a bit of additional work with respect to alignment runs that do not go according to plan (error handling, etc). Here is a sneak peek at what the alignment interface looks like right now (subject to change)
