Multilanguage Lunar/Solar/Planetary Autofocus V 2.8

Professional autofocus plugin for FireCapture, developed by Stefano Romani, designed
specifically for high-resolution planetary, lunar, and solar imaging with motorized focusers. 12 languages available with real-time UI synchronization (English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, and Dutch)

📜 Version History (Changelog)

*** PLEASE READ MULTILINGUAL PDF GUIDE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD ***

All important changes and updates to the Lunar/Solar/Planetary Autofocus V2 plugin for FireCapture are documented here.

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[2.8] - 2026-10-01

🎯 Seeing Optimization & Smart Sub-ROI

• "Difficult Seeing" Mode: Introduced the new advanced option featuring Smart Stacking & Robust Fit to stabilize and improve sharpness analysis even under poor seeing conditions.
• Active (Anchored) Sub-ROI: Implemented support for the anchored software calculation sub-area, allowing precise millimeter-level isolation of planetary or lunar targets.
• Stability & Interface: Further optimizations for the V2.8 build and real-time calculation workflows.

[2.7] - 2026-09-29

✨ New Features & Interface

• Moon/Sun Mode: Renamed and expanded the classic "Moon" option to "Moon/Sun" to officially reflect full compatibility and optimization for solar imaging (H-alpha and white light), complete with localization across all 12 supported languages.
• Dynamic UI Update: Real-time synchronization of the calculation mode dropdown menu when switching languages on-the-fly directly from the GUI.

[2.6] - 2026-09-29

🚀 Advanced Optimization & Lucky Autofocus

• Lucky Autofocus Anti-Seeing Algorithm: Revolutionized step sampling by introducing multi-frame capture during the stabilization pause. The plugin analyzes the stream and automatically selects the maximum score (the frame where seeing momentarily stabilized).
• Dedicated Settle Time Selector: Added a dropdown menu for custom configuration of focuser stabilization time and Lucky AF sampling window (with selectable intervals from 500ms to 3000ms).

[2.5] - 2026-09-29

🛠️ Architecture & Stability

• Version Update & Structure: Consolidation of the V2.5 build with background calculation thread optimization and seamless integration of multilingual graphical components (12 languages).

[2.3] - 2026-09-29

🚀 New Features

• Automatic CSV Export: Added automatic saving of all V-Curve points and data to a .csv file inside the system's home directory (user.home) upon completion of the autofocus routine.
• Dummy Cam Compatibility: The log export system is fully operational even during bench simulations with the virtual camera (dummy cam).

[2.2] - 2026-07-xx

⚡ Optimizations & Performance

• Settle Time / Throttling Management: Introduced temporal control over frame sampling (e.g., adjustable intervals at 500ms or 1s). Reduces calculation load while keeping FireCapture's video stream 100% fluid.

[2.1] - 2026-05-xx

🛠️ Improvements & Stability

• ASCOM Driver Reset: Optimized focuser management and initialization procedure to prevent hardware communication lockups.
• Interface and Localization: Perfected dynamic Sub-ROI selection and stabilized multilingual support (12 languages).

[2.0] - 2026-03-xx (First Stable Release)

✨ Initial Release

• V-Curve Engine: Implementation of least squares parabola calculation ($y = ax^2 + bx + c$) for high-precision focus vertex detection ($X_v = -b/2a$).
• Dual Calculation Mode:
  • Moon Mode: Absolute spatial gradient analysis ($dx, dy$) pixel by pixel.
  • Planet Mode: Hybrid weighted analysis with normalized average intensity to isolate planetary details while reducing seeing impact.
• Native Integration: Direct communication with FireCapture's focuser instance via SystemSettings.getCurrent().getFocuser().