FirstLight Wizard

The First Light Wizard is designed to assist the new user in setting up the parameters for running a Vcurve for the first time.

Once the Vcurve has been created and the data is saved then FocusMax is will able to autofocus your telescope.

Running the First Light Wizard:

1.Manually focus the telescope – the focus does not have to be exact, just close.

2.It is best if you can adjust the draw tube or move the primary mirror (SCT) so that the focus position is mid-way in the in and out travel of the focuser. This is important as FocusMax will require sufficient travel range inside and outside of focus in order to develop the full Vcurve.

3.Select a star near the zenith, press the Find button and verify in the Log that the resulting min/max flux falls within the boundary on the Setup tab and verify that the star is not saturated.

4.Select the First Light Wizard from the Wizard menu.

5.The wizard will prompt you at each step of the process.

6.The First Light Wizard will start by moving the focuser in small then larger increments away from the focus point as it attempts to estimate the slope of one side f the ‘Vcurve’. The wizard will continue to move the focuser until it achieves the HFD setting (default = 40). If your focuser cannot reach this HFD setting then Stop and re-run the First Light Wizard and reduce the HFD value to a smaller value when prompted. This is not uncommon if the focuser is not centered in the travel range of the focuser (as per step 2 above) or the focuser has limited travel.

7.Now that the First Light Wizard has estimated the Vcurve slope, it will proceed to take a series of subframe images from outside of focus, through focus to the other side of focus.

8.Open the Log if closed and watch the HFD change as the focuser is moved, an image taken and measured by FocusMax.

9.The slope of the lines for both left and right Vcurve lines and the Position Intercept Difference (PID) will be calculated and saved in your system Profile that is active.

10.FocusMax will then use the results to perform an autofocus run

11.You have the option to rerun the Vcurve or exit. It is suggested that you collect multiple Vcurves

12.Pressing the Focus button on the Focus Tab which should result in a perfectly focused star

Notes:

Set the Target Star and Focus binning to 2 if you are using a DSLR camera.

Verify that the focus position is approximately centered in the focuser travel range (step 2). This is particularly important if the focuser has limited travel and may not be able to move the focuser to achieve the max HFD value.

If the FistLight Wizard fails because it cannot achieve the max HFD setting (40 HFD in step 6), then reduce the max HFD value to the largest found in the Log. For example: If the default HFD setting =40 BUT the largest HFD found in Step 6 is 35 then adjust then set HFD = 35 in the text box.