From: "doodlebun" <gbleser@bellsouth.net>

Date: November 6, 2008 2:05:17 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Question about the focusing rings

  I've been trying to use the focuser for star images and ran into 

some confusion. I turn the reticle on and position the star in the 

center. Then the focus aid is enabled and the rings appear around the 

star. Fine, so far.

 But when I have a field of stars like a star cluster, I have not been 

able to get the rings to appear around the star I have centered on the 

reticle crosshairs. Instead I get some focusing circles off to the side 

which are not surrounding any visible star. I am not doing this for 

guiding but for deep sky photos with a DMK21AF04 using exposures from 

10-30 seconds. So I try to find a magnitude 4 or 5 star in the field 

that I am photographing (which is easy for bright star clusters) and 

attempt to use the focusing aid and run into this problem. 

 The Astro IIDC software is all about planetary, solar or lunar 

photography. Perhaps having a bunch of bright stars in the field screws 

up the algorhythm. Can someone advise?