Hello, I would like to have possibility to configure order of these operations in Scheduler: track, focus align, guide.
Currently this order is fixed and I think it could be better to have it in different order than now.
Here is why: I am currently imaging narrowband subs. In case of focus I am obviously focusing with the desired filter (OIII for example). But for alignment it is much faster to use luminance filter instead of OIII. Luminance needs only few second to capture enough signal to be successful during alignment. But narrowband filters need more time.
Now it operates like this:
1) track - no problem here
2) focus - takes few minutes in case of narrowband subs
3) align - using luminance filter, takes few seconds
4) focusing once again, because the filter has been changed - too much wasted time
5) guide - no problem here
So, if I would be able to change the order, it will be like this:
1) track
2) align - mostly without need to focus before, because I am not moving the focuser between sessions
3) focus with desired filter
4) guide
Could this be implemented please? I think it will not take too much effort.
Thank you in advance

Hi Hades,

I'll let others comment on your feature request for the scheduler but are you aware of focusing using offsets? In case not... you can "lock" your OIII filter to Lum so that whenever you want to focus on OIII, Focus will run on Lum and when complete switch filters automatically to OIII and apply the appropriate offset for moving between Lum and OIII.

In order to use this, you need to setup the offsets between the filters involved. So lets say you want to do this for narrowband. So run autofocus on Lum and your narrowband filters and get the relative offsets for the focus points for these filters. Lets say, for example, OIII focuses 58 ticks inwards from Lum's focus point. Configure the Filter Settings popup (available from Capture and Focus) as follows:


Now when you focus on OIII, Focus will:
1. Swap filters fron OIII to Lum.
2. Run Autofocus. Say the focus point is 2,500.
3. Swap filters back to OIII.
4. Apply the Lum to OIII offset (-58 -0) = -58 ticks. So focuser will move in by 58 ticks to 2,442

So there is setup work to be done to get the filter offsets for your setup. But your focus runs will be on Lum which is your fastest filter.

This may not be exactly what your want but it might be helpful.

Than you John, this could solve my "problem". I was wondering how the Filter offsets works. Now i know

Yesterday I have ran the Build offsets function. Now the focusing is much faster. But it still do the focusing twice, once before platesolving and once after platesolving. It could be better to have the possibility to reorder these steps and save some couple of minutes.

The focus before plate solving can be prevented by unchecking this focus checkbox...


Obviously if you aren't close enough to focus then platesolving may fail but that's your choice.

If you get a second Autofocus that will be because of a filter change requesting a refocus. So presumably you are plate solving with a different filter to the first filter in your capture sequence? I just did a test sequence with plate solving and capture on Lum and there was only 1 focus run.

I personally plate solve on my Lum filter but there is an option to just use the "current" filter. This could be a way to avoid the double focus. Obviously, though plate solving may struggle with some filters, or you may need to increase exposure times which starts to negate the benefits of avoiding the extra focus run.

I have set Lum to be used for plate solving. And the first filter I have used yesterday was O3.
So it have behave like this (I will omit the other steps):
1) Focus with Lum and using offset to O3
2) Align with Lum
3) Refocus because of filter change, again with Lum
So it uses only Lum filter every time for focusing