Precision needed in oddball configurations

[theskyhound]

Hello,

1) Zoom eyepieces are an obvious problem, but i have yet to solve it. My usual advice is to create something like three eyepieces, one at the lowest magnification, one at the highest (that you actually use) and one at the sweet spot (if there is one) that you tend to gravitate to. One thing to keep in mind is that the field of view isn't the only thing that changes. When looking at an object near the edge of detection, some focal lengths give you a better chance of detection than others, depending on the size of the object in the eyepiece. Your choice of four eyepieces is fine. The algorithm that selects the "best" eyepiece considers all sorts of things, so depending on the object, light pollution, etc, you may find that it really does use all eyepieces. But it will tend to favor some over others. So what you have done is good.

2). Binoviewers are an interesting case. There is an advantage to two eyes, especially when detecting faint objects. But other than that they function the same. I don't have much personal experience with them and nobody has asked about it in a very long time. I could have a check box that indicated an eyepiece was a binoviewer, which would change its behavior some. But for now, just treat it like a single eyepiece. Create a custom eyepiece and provide the apparent field of view and focal length.

3) Night Vision is something that I don't have any way to handle at all, in terms of what you can see. Unlike EAA, the electronics are very different from the cameras typically used for astrophotography, so I doubt I'll be able to model them anytime soon. This is something that has never come up before. That said it should be relatively simple to match the actual field of view. The apparent FOV and focal length will likely be all that matters. So you could easily create your own custom eyepiece as above. As far as the field of view goes, just create a custom eyepiece and name it after your actual eyepiece. But you will be able to see much fainter than predicted, with the caveat that it will depend on the color of the star and spectral characteristics of extended objects. I'd just consider it an eyepiece to try after using the wisest field eyepiece to find the target (or the right spot in the sky to look) and then see what you can see.

But you could create another telescope in this case, I suppose with a larger aperture, to take into consideration that you can see fainter. But it would take some work and I doubt the results would be worth it. I'd just enter them as eyepieces and then try them on different targets to see what you can see.