Astroart vs Maxim

[garymck]

Hi,

after a number of years doing no imaging for a variety of equipment and personal reasons I'm now setup permanently in an obs in the backyard. Bought Hagar's G11 (thanks Hagar!! - pe is 5.6 arc secs uncorrected.....) and also have a TSA120 plus Tak reducer and an ST8300C.

I now have to decide on software.

Maxim plus Pinpoint seems pretty standard, but man the price at the current exchange rate, plus yearly subs fees is a bit over the top.

Astroart 5 is reasonably priced and has plate solving built in. Is this a reasonable alternative....If I bought this I could add Pixinsight as well...

Would this be an equivalent combination to Maxim plus Pinpoint?

Any other suggestions?

cheers Gary

[Merlin66]

Gary,
I've been using AstroArt for ten years now.
The latest V5 is constantly being upgraded and Fabio and the team are always listening to users.
It controls and guides my mount (NEQ6 + EQmod), controls all my cameras - DSLR, CCD etc. does plate solving and can handle all your darks/ flats/ light exposures, and can do some majic image processing as well as having fantastic scripting support - SN search etc.
With all that capability, I don't know why you'd need to add Pixinsight.
Highly recommended.

[garymck]

Thanks Merlin,

I've been playing with the demo today and really like it. Much more straightforward than Maxim. It is actually fairly intuitive to use, and the preview settings enable you to try different parameters and view the results. At he price I think it is great value. think it will be my choice...

cheers
Gary

[theodog]

I must put my hand up for AA5:). I was a long term Max user but had difficulty reloading it onto my new computer. AA5 was suggested so I tried it. Scripting is easy and straight forward - have even written some simple ones that run my cameras.

I recommend using the simulated cameras and mount to trial scripts, then substitute your actual cameras etc.

Great work Fabio:thumbsup:.

[garymck]

just paid my money and ordered Astroart.....it was just soooooo much simpler to get a good result than with Maxim.

Gary

[pmrid]

I've had AA4 for some time but never used it. But having read this thread, I've re-loaded it for a look. One thing I haven't been able to find so far is any ability to load a focuser drivers and control focus from within the program - or to do any kind of auto-focus routine. Have I missed it?

Peter

[Merlin66]

Peter,
I don't use it myself, but in the manual it says
"It's possible to autofocus using any ASCOM compatible focuser. Just download and install the autofocus plugin from the Download Page of the AstroArt website"

[pmrid]

Thanks Ken. I'll have another look.
Peter

[gbeal]

I used AstroArt a while back, AA4, IIRC?
The one thing I could not get to work for love nor money was auto-guiding.
No way, never, just would not.
PHD? Piece of cake. Maxim, simple, and it controlled my goto's.
AstroArt? Nope.
Maybe I should try it again.
Gary

[garymck]

I think it is well worthwhile having a good look. Previously I had tried Maxim - could never get a pic that looked remotely good.Other peoplel like it so I must be slow. ImagesPlus is nice but you have to pay for EVERY update and it is quite slow at processing. Having just bought Astroart 5 after playing with the demo I have just done the single best processing job on an image I've ever made, and it took about 30 minutes from go to whoa. Calibrate, stack, debayer, ddp, a bit of deconvolution, and a tweak of color saturation and some curves. All incredibly quick and easy to do. din't need to use any other program... AND you get in built plate solving, telescope control, focusing control and autoguiding....

Will be trying the scope control stuff tonite and will report back how well it works...

cheers
Gary

[Merlin66]

Gary,
The auto guiding routine under V5 has been improved.
Fabio actually worked with the spectroscopy amateurs to include a "nudge" function to allow us to bring the target star onto the slit gap.
I use it with a Lodestar camera.
Works well for me......