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Finding focus
If this is your first astrophotography camera, it can be a challenge to find the correct focus.
1.
Point your Telescope to a bright star. Use an eyepiece and make sure that the star is centred in your field of view.
If you are using a GoTo or tracking mount, make sure that everything is set up correctly and the star is not
moving out of your field of view.
2.
Remove the front cover of the camera and insert it into the telescope in place of the eyepiece. Connect the
camera to your PC via the supplied USB cable.
3.
Start the application
AstroPhotoCapture
. On the right part of the screen you can find a drop-down list. Click on
one camera name to activate it.
4.
Select
Video Mode
and choose an
Exposure Time
of approximately 1 second (ca.
1000 ms
). Select the highest
possible
Gain.
Start the live view (if it isn’t already started).
5.
If you are completely out of focus, there might not be anything visible on the live view yet. Slowly turn your focus
adjustment knob of the telescope. Consider that the image in the live view currently is refreshed only about once
per second. If you get closer to the correct focus, you will notice the stars as large discs of light. Turn the focus
knob slowly to shrink those discs in size.
6.
Touching the focus knob of your telescope will likely introduce vibrations to your image. Let go of the focus knob
after each slow adjustment and wait for the vibrations to stop. This makes it easier to judge how close you are to
the correct focus.
7.
Once you are close to the correct focus, decrease the
Exposure Time
. This will increase the frame rate of the live
view and allow you to reach a finer focus. Don’t decrease the exposure time too much, otherwise the stars might
become invisible.
8.
Use the scroll wheel of your mouse to zoom onto a star. The optimal focus is reached where the stars appear the
smallest. Due to the diffraction limit of the telescope and movement of the atmosphere (seeing), the stars will
never appear as perfect points of light.
9.
All objects in the night sky share the same focal plane. After setting the correct focus, you can change the
exposure settings or move the telescope to a different target without having to refocus.
