Focusmax 4 ????

[barkis]

I was looking at focus max 4 to compliment my newly acquired Lakeside focuser.
After visiting ccdware's website.  (having had to exclude their website via my Malware Prog.owing to a Trojan warning. ) 
I was a bit staggered by the price of $129. Not sure the advantages of the software will justify that price, 
which will be around £105 I reckon. I'm not a mean Git, so If anyone using it will give it a 10/10,
then I will re consider.

Ron.

 

Edited April 19, 2020 by barkis

[bottletopburly]

what capture software are you currently using ron . 

[barkis]

25 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

what capture software are you currently using ron . 

MaximDL 6.

[Davey-T]

1 minute ago, barkis said:

MaximDL 6.

The focus utility in Maxim works perfectly ok for me Ron.

Dave

[Anne S]

It's cheaper to just get Sequence Generator Pro. I've also got a Lakeside focus motor which works fine with it, previously I tried FocusMax 3. You have to slew to a star to do the focus run, which is fine when starting the evening. SGPro can do a quick focus run in between subs in situ as it measures all the stars in the fov. It's 5e first software I've trusted to do it reliably,

[steppenwolf]

23 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

The focus utility in Maxim works perfectly ok for me Ron.

I agree, this is exactly what I use for autofocus - no charge, it comes bundled with MaxIm DL and it works a treat! You will find the built in autofocus software under the 'Observatory' dialogue box in MaxIm, Ron.

[Skipper Billy]

I would second using SGP - the focus routine is superb.

If you really want to use Focusmax you can get a slightly older version for free from here (which also works superbly)

https://www.astronomylog.co.uk/focusmax-downloads/

 

[alan4908]

 

1 hour ago, barkis said:

I was looking at focus max 4 to compliment my newly acquired Lakeside focuser.
After visiting ccdware's website.  (having had to exclude their website via my Malware Prog.owing to a Trojan warning. ) 
I was a bit staggered by the price of $129. Not sure the advantages of the software will justify that price, 
which will be around £105 I reckon. I'm not a mean Git, so If anyone using it will give it a 10/10,
then I will re consider.

Ron.

I use the freeware version of FocusMax in conjunction with Maxim DL and ACP Expert and find it gives excellent results, so I've never had the need to get the paid version. 

The main reason I suggest using FocusMax is that it works out the focusing from a defocused position, which helps to combat the effects of seeing.  To further reduce the impact of seeing, I'd also recommend you choose the FocusMax option of convergence which takes (say) 5 exposures at the defocused position and attempts to pick the best one.  Seeing will also be minimized by picking a focus star near the zenith, since this minimizes the amount of atmospheric distortion.  If you want to best possible focus then you should also look at the various FocusMax tutorials and select a focus star and exposure that puts you on the linear part of your camera. It is also quite fast, in my system, it takes a total time of about 80s to achieve focus, with the slower but more accurate option of convergence selected.

On the downside of the freeware version, I seem to recall there is an issue with using the FocusMax acquire star feature,  this doesn't impact me since I use ACP Expert to select the focus star.

 

Alan

 

[barkis]

Many thanks gentlemen, I will certainly get a good conclusion to this from all the alternatives 
you  have supplied.  The focuser works great manually, but It will be a lot better from the computer chair. 😀
Ron.