#19860 - Lacerta for Lodestar Focus Aide
199 Smith Street · Lowell, Michigan 49331 · U.S.A.
Telephone: 616-897-9351 · Fax: (616) 897-8229 · Toll Free: 888-488-0381
Lacerta for Lodestar User’s Guide, Revision 1
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Lacerta for Lodestar User’s Guide
Thank you for purchasing the Lacerta focus aide device. Combined with FocusLock, you can achieve
automatic and continuous focus using an off-axis guider and Lodestar or Lodestar X2 auto-guide camera,
with performance similar to the ONAG On-Axis Guider developed by
Innovations Foresight, LLC.
The purpose of this document is to get you up and running with
continuous auto-focus quickly.
Introducing a New Way to Auto-Focus
FocusLock
is based upon SharpLock technology developed by
Innovations Foresight, LLC and is covered under U.S. utility patent #14470935. Titled “Closed-Loop
System for Auto-Focusing in Photography and a Method of Use Thereof”, Optec has licensed this
technology to develop FocusLock auto-focus software.
Theory of Operation:
FocusLock takes advantage of the slight astigmatism introduced by the cold-mirror used in Innovations
Foresight’s On-Axis Guider, or ONAG. The ONAG was developed to provide an alternative to off-axis
guiding by using a dichroic beam splitter whereby the visible light is reflected to a primary imaging
camera above, and the near infrared (NIR) light is passed straight through to a guide camera.
Use with Off-Axis Guiders:
Off-axis guiders do not provide the slight
astigmatism required for FocusLock operation by
default. Optec engineers have developed the
Lacerta for Lodestar
optical device which adds a
small tilt-window to the imaging path of any
Starlight Xpress Lodestar or Lodestar X2 auto
guider without adding significant back-focus.
