User sterne-jaeger has created a graph for weather information that looks pretty sharp. Maybe this project can use the same style. www.indilib.org/forum/development/5847-o...nsor-data.html#44477

Are there actual plans to implement this feature?

I'm late to this thread, but I wanted to mention that I've had some discussion with Jasem about starting up a project to log and plot various measurements across a KStars session (and even to save and view later if desired). I'm not quite ready to begin (I'm still working on my focus improvements--see that recent thread), and I don't want to step on any toes if someone is already doing this, but I'd be happy to eventually implement this focus graph or collaborate on this.

In short my (half-baked at this point) idea is to have an analysis tab, or you could view it as a sort of a log, but not for debugging of software, but rather for debugging of imaging. One could plot focus, timing, temperature, coma, SNR, sky brightness, ... in various ways.

I'd probably start up a thread about it, perhaps in a month, to solicit more detailed ideas about design and functionality, but let me know if someone else is already on this, and/or if someone wants to collaborate in the software. I'm always happy to have idea collaborators.

Hy

I was thinking about doing this, but I have been rather busy so I haven't gotten a chance. I did look into it though. I found that the functionality is actually mostly already there.

The existing functionality is that if you do an autofocus and then you select the checkbox to have it "autofocus if the HFR > something" then it will take a reading of the HFR between every image using the same star that was used for the autofocus. This is not exactly what we had been discussing, but it is about halfway there. The current function requires you to have done an autofocus and requires you to check that checkbox. Also the current function performs the action entirely in the Focus Module but then does display the result in the summary screen. So one way of looking at it is that the only part of what we discussed that it doesn't do is to display a history of the HFR on the summary screen, it just displays the latest result. If that is all that we want to change, it actually would be very quick to implement.

However, I was also taking some time to think about it. I'm not sure that you would only want this function to work if you had checked that box in the capture module. You might still want to monitor the HFR over time, even if you don't want it to automatically perform an autofocus. Also you might not want to restrict the function to just the star that you last performed an autofocus on. Maybe you want to be able to click on a star in the Summary Screen image to change monitoring stars. Partially, I wasn't working on it because I have been rather busy, but also because I've been thinking about it.

Thank you both. I figured that was the case. I can't express how grateful I am there are such devoted developers listening to us and voluntarily working on bringing about new functionality. There's no need to rush, but maybe it could start off with the simplest version Rob described, get feedback on it and then expanding upon it later.

That reminds me, one thing we also need to consider is what happens to the hfr profile graph that is displayed there now

Rob, thanks for your explanation as to what is already there. I'm not quite sure though whether the "reading of the HFR between every image" is taken by analysing a separate "focusing image" or by examining the most recent light frame that has been taken. (I never used the "autofocus if HFR >" option since I want to run autofocus as well as set the exact focus point manually. I just don't trust automatic re-focusing. Since I sit in front of the sceen all night anway, I can afford to take full manual control of it.) Deriving the HFR/FWHM reading from actual light frames would be most helpful IMO. A graph displaying the last x values would help determine whether there is a real "trend of deterioration" or just random change in light frame quality.
The HFR/FWHM reading could also be stored in the FITS header of each light frame (provided this does not violate the FITS standard). Clearly Hy's approach of logging several quality measurements all at once would take this to the next level but for now I'd be extremely happy to have a simple HFR reading - even without any graph - after each light frame.

A big THANK YOU to Rob, Hy, lhoujin and all developers for driving this forward. Currently this is the feature that I believe would improve the quality of my pictures most.

I think there is room for it to move to the focusing module. Or share the same location with tabs to switch between them.

Right, I forgot to make that part clear. It takes a separate focus image or subframe between each light image now. I agree that it would be nice to just use the light image for the hfr history and monitoring. But one issue I can see immediately is that a longer exposure will make the star appear bigger so using that for monitoring hfr and comparing it to a specific value that was derived from an autofocus image could prove difficult. Not to mention that the light images could be taken using different filters and the star could appear bigger or smaller in different filters due to the color of the star or chromatic aberration of the telescope or filter

I don't think it has to match the HFR of a focus frame, since long exposure light frames that are comparable with each other.

Thank you very much for the clarification. That's right, light frame HFR values cannot be compared to focus module HFR values. I would prefer comparing light frame HFR values only and leaving the focusing module out of the equation (for the purpose of tracking light frame quality) completely. Of course seeing will increase stars for long exposures but sub-optimal focus will ADD to it so I would expect derived HFR values to be fully meaningful still. With regard to filters HFR values should be compared among their respective groups only.

Let me clarify: I meant the user should take track of what filters have been used. I didn't ask for Ekos to keep track of it. I'd like to keep it simple and add more functionality later as needed/time allows.