Full Frame Focus Exposure Time By Filter

[Joe R]

All,

I’m really liking AA8, especially when moving along the learning curve quickly!

I ran into another dilemma and looking for a solution. I have an 8 position filter wheel with LRGB and narrow band filters. When auto-focusing I’ve been using 3 seconds exposures for the LRGB filters and 30 seconds for the narrow band filters. Looking at the full frame focusing window in AA8 there isn’t an option to set the exposure duration by filter (I.e. 3 seconds for LRGB filters and 30 seconds for narrow band filters). Is there a way to do this?

If there isn’t I can manually change the exposure duration when ending one filter type and starting another. Usually, I get my imaging session going and after midnight I go to bed and let the session run.Given this having the ability to set the focusing exposure times would be good.

Let me know and Thanks Again for the help.

Joe

[Dunmunro]

All,

I’m really liking AA8, especially when moving along the learning curve quickly!

I ran into another dilemma and looking for a solution. I have an 8 position filter wheel with LRGB and narrow band filters. When auto-focusing I’ve been using 3 seconds exposures for the LRGB filters and 30 seconds for the narrow band filters. Looking at the full frame focusing window in AA8 there isn’t an option to set the exposure duration by filter (I.e. 3 seconds for LRGB filters and 30 seconds for narrow band filters). Is there a way to do this?

If there isn’t I can manually change the exposure duration when ending one filter type and starting another. Usually, I get my imaging session going and after midnight I go to bed and let the session run.Given this having the ability to set the focusing exposure times would be good.

Let me know and Thanks Again for the help.

Joe

See AA8: Help->Scripts->Functions (instruments)


I think you might have to use a script where each FF autofocus session is given a specific exposure time after a filter change:

Wheel.Goto(n) Wheel.Goto(filter)

Moves the filter wheel to the given filter. Examples: Wheel.Goto(4) , Wheel.Goto("R")

Wheel.Wait

Wait until the movement is complete. On wheels which don't support this feature a time in seconds will be used. See the Filter wheel window.

Camera.FullframeAutofocus(...) (time) - (time,darks,count,step,binning)

Starts a full frame autofocus. Example: Camera.FullframeAutofocus(5) starts focusing with an exposure of 5 seconds, using the parameters saved previously in the autofocus window.

(from the AA8 script help file)

[Joe R]

Dunmunro,

Thanks for the replay. Great idea and will try it tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks Again

Joe

[Dunmunro]

Dunmunro,

Thanks for the replay. Great idea and will try it tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks Again

Joe

You can use simulators to test your script during the day.

[fabdev]

... Looking at the full frame focusing window in AA8 there isn’t an option to set the exposure duration by filter (I.e. 3 seconds for LRGB filters and 30 seconds for the narrow band filters ...

Until now it's only possible with scripts, but that's actually an interesting feature. It will be added to AA8 SP4, available in June. If you need to receive a prerelease next month please contact me by PM or https://www.msb-astroart.com/support.htm
Thanks, Fabio.

[Joe R]

Hello Again.

I was able to do some testing last night but ran into problems. I picked up an Ipolar and wanted to see how it performed using Sequence Generator and PhD2 as this is what I’ve used for several years. Needless to say the Ipolar did a very good job.

When I switched to AA8 all seemed to go well, connected the QSI683wsg, QHYLii, filter wheel but it went south once I connected the “telescope”, or mount. In the setup above I connect the QYYLii output to the autoguider port on my Losmandy G11 which has worked well, but doing the same with AA8 caused a lot of screen freezing, a number of not responding messages and had to reboot AA8 and disconnect/reconnect everything to get it going again.

I suspect a few things:

There wasn’t a “on camera” selection To connect the “Telescope”, or mount, so I used I used the ASCOM Driver / ASCOM Relay Box selections below. I was able to calibrate and start guidIng but this is when the freezing and AA8 not responding started. Maybe these are not the correct choices for my setup.

I don’t usually control the mount from the computer for GOTOs and such, I use the hand controller, but can if this is the best choice. Id prefer to keep cables to a minimum and not adding another cable if possible.

Also, I use an unpowered USB hub and have 3 connections, the main camera, guider, and focuser, so maybe a powered hub would help.

Also, I’m using and i5 computer running Windows 7.


Any help is greatly appreciated.

Joe

[Iver]

If you will be imaging and guiding with Astroart and you connected to your mount through its ASCOM driver select "camera 2 relays" for guide if you have the guide cable connected to your guide camera. If your guide cable is connected to your imaging camera select "camera 1 relays" for guide. If your mount supports pulse guide you can skip the guide cable and select "same connection of goto"
Hope this helps.

[fabdev]

ASCOM relay boxes are rare hardware which converts USB/serial to an autoguide cable, it's probably not the correct settings.
If there is no need to control the mount for GOTOs, I confirm that the correct setting is:

"Camera 2 relays" / "Same connection of GOTO"
or
"ASCOM guider relays" / "Same connection of GOTO"

in both cases they are the Second / First items in the lists.
Fabio.

[Joe R]

Fabio /Iver,

Thank you for the quick replies. I’ll try those setting and report back. Clouds have rolled in so hoping to test next weekend.

Thanks Again!

Joe

[Joe R]

... Looking at the full frame focusing window in AA8 there isn’t an option to set the exposure duration by filter (I.e. 3 seconds for LRGB filters and 30 seconds for the narrow band filters ...

Until now it's only possible with scripts, but that's actually an interesting feature. It will be added to AA8 SP4, available in June. If you need to receive a prerelease next month please contact me by PM or https://www.msb-astroart.com/support.htm
Thanks, Fabio.

Fabio,

Not sure if it’s related but I installed SP4 and no longer see the QHY5Lii guide camera as an ASCOM option. The main camera connects without issue, but when attempting to connect the guide camera the ASCOM chooser pops up and the QHY camera is no longer available. Also, from the camera control plug in the guide camera pull-down there isn’t a QHY5Lii selection, so I’ve been using ASCOM.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Joe

[fabdev]

Hi Joe,
you may switch to SP2 / SP3 , using the SP3 Upgrade: https://www.msb-astroart.com/down_en.htm
but I think that nothing will change.

Maybe you are now using the 64 bit version? Maybe you upgraded the QHY ASCOM driver and now the device names are called: QHYCCD-Camera and QHYCCD-Guider?

[Joe R]

Hi Fabio.

Thanks for the reply. I'll revert back to SP3 and see if that fixes the issue. I was using SP3 up to the point of SP4. I haven't update any camera drivers, or any other drivers, and there's no QHY selections at all. I'll let you know how...

Thanks Again.

Joe