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I was at the Grand Canyon star party last month and a ranger showed me a trick for focusing on Jupiter.
He said to use a Bahtinov mask on a bright star first, then swing over to the planet without touching the focus knob, which gave me my sharpest planetary image yet, so what other focusing hacks have you folks found helpful?
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lily_ramirez42mo ago
Oh that Bahtinov mask trick is a classic! I read somewhere that using a camera's live view zoom on a star works great too, you just zoom in digitally and tweak until it's a tiny point.
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hayes.elliot2mo ago
But how accurate is that compared to the mask?
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lucas631mo ago
Wait, doesn't live view zoom kill your battery fast though? I used to think that trick was a gimmick. Saw a ranger demo it on a dob once and the star got pin sharp in seconds. Changed my whole approach. Now I use it every time, just zoom in and tweak the focus until the star stops breathing.
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