Astroart Forum

Hello, a new minor version of Astroart is available: 7.0 Service Pack 2

Version 7.0 SP2 - November 26, 2019
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* New feature. Control of ASCOM rotators.
* New feature. Graphs during autofocus.
* New feature. Full-frame autofocus.
* New feature. Focuser temperature can be used as ambient temperature.
* New feature. Script commands for controlling PHD guiding.
* Improved. Script command Image.FindCoordinates with more options.
* Improved. Preprocessing with manual confirm gives visual feedback.
* Improved. Clicking on a star in the list centers the field.
* Improved. Aladin web site via https connection.
* Improved. Updated documentation in Help format.
* Bug fix. The latest APASS file format was not recognized.
* Bug fix. Align with method "One star" failed in some cases.
* Bug fix. 8 bit palette AVI could not be opened.

About the new features I will write soon more details in the "Instrumentation" subforum.
This Service Pack also install the new documentation in Help format where you can find more information. There were no critical corrections, so there is no hurry to install it.
The download page is: http://www.msb-astroart.com/down_en.htm

The Service Pack 2 also includes the Service Pack 1.
Clear skies,
Fabio.

Fabio, thanks!

Yes, thanks Fabio - I have just installed SP2. And tonight there will be clear skies, for the first time in more than a month (this fall has been extremely misserable in Denmark)
I am looking forward to try the full frame focus feature.

Full frame focus works fine, thanks for a great new feature!!!
Here's a snap from last night, when I tried it out.

Great, I assume that this is the first exposure of the night (?)

If not, for autofocusing during the night, the Step must be lower, because the defocus must be much lower. I'd say maximum 50-100% of star size, for example, if the good focus for your system is stars of 4 pixels then the Step must be configured to have stars of 6-8 pixels at the extreme positions. This will allow shorther exposure times too.

Ha Fabio, this was the only FFAF I did.
I have checked the FWHM of stars afterwards, and they were as small as when I did manual focus. So I guess, thatI was lucky. I can detect ca +/- 5 steps when focusing with a bahtinov mask, so I will reduce the step size next time.

fabdev wrote: ↑

30 Nov 2019, 12:36

Great, I assume that this is the first exposure of the night (?)

If not, for autofocusing during the night, the Step must be lower, because the defocus must be much lower. I'd say maximum 50-100% of star size, for example, if the good focus for your system is stars of 4 pixels then the Step must be configured to have stars of 6-8 pixels at the extreme positions. This will allow shorther exposure times too.

I tried Full Frame AF last night along with the Sequencer and it worked extremely well. I started the night by using the original single star AF using a large number of steps and multiple exposures to get a tight focus, and then FFAF between each integration, to keep focus tight throughout the night. I'll probably switch to using FFAF exclusively.