the smallest thing known to man, a sweet focal point

[oldpink]

tonight I realised how hard it is to get a good focus from a camera
I'm thinking that an auto focus or 10:1 step focuser may be required

I had some mixed results tonight due to wind & cloud issues but the one thing I could not get right was my focus

through the camera,
it was always blurry no matter how fine I tried to adjust, even touching the focus wheel had the image bounce like a space hopper

this got me thinking about a thread on here I read about an auto focuser's and 10/1 step focus mods or even a combo of both

is an auto focus worth it or upgrade to a 10 : 1 step or perceiver with my standard EQ5 and sky watcher focus set up and try to find the smallest thing known to man

like trying to get your shower temp just right, you constantly have to adjust it to a micron level or be boiled one minute and under an Arctic glacier the next

[Pete Presland]

even with a auto focus or 10:1 step focuser it is still hard to the sweet spot when imaging. sometimes the seeing conditions are so bad (yesterday morning) that it seems like it does not exist!

[ChrisLX200]

An auto-focuser is wonderful - when it works, but just having the focuer motorised is also very useful because you don't have to touch your scope. Are you using a focusing mask of any kind? The Bahtinov mask is an excellent tool because with practice it shows exactly whether you have achieved perfect focus or not.

ChrisH

[ollypenrice]

Two thoughts.

1) You shouldn't get as much bounce as you seem to be getting, in my view. Is everything well with the mount and hardware?

2) a simple extension wand on the focus knob makes life much easier. Just attach a lever to the normal speed knob anbd, in effect, you get a reduction.

Olly

[ultramol]

Hi Olly, What is an extension wand? googled it but found nothing but it sounds good...

[knobby]

Hi Olly, What is an extension wand? googled it but found nothing but it sounds good...

Anything to make the focuser knob bigger... Clothes peg / peanut butter lid etc.

[glowingturnip]

i've got a 10:1 step-down focus wheel thingy that I'll be fitting in a couple of weeks, will let you know how that goes

[nicks90]

golden syrup lid with a blob of blu-tack on the back works a charm for getting really fine focus.

[ollypenrice]

Just a lever concentric with the middle of the knob and attached to it. Mine is further enhanced by being driven by a fine threaded bar at right angles to the wand (which is the piece of alloy angle in the picture.)

This really does make for ultra fine imaging focus but a longer lever without the threaded drive would also be a big help. The jam jar lid idea isn't daft either.

Olly