I've just been a bad bad boy...

[dpastern]

lashed out and bought Maxim DL 5 Pro boxed set off Cyanogen's website. grr @ shipping rates - US $85 for FedEx, no other options. I won't use all of its features now, but will down the track if everything goes according to plan (cue evil Blackadder laugh). I'm looking at it is a long term investment, which will grow with me as my capabilities improve. Well, that's the plan ;-)

Next pay will probably be ccdsoft and Sky 6 Professional, which should pretty much cover me software wise I think (well, other than ccd inspector and maybe astroart).

Dave

[jjjnettie]

Congrats Dave. Buy the best, forget the rest.

[White Rabbit]

Before you buy the Sky 6, check out Starry night. Maxim can be used as a plug in with Starry night.

[AdrianF]

I have all 3 and not sure whether I like any of them.
Sky6 looks very much like Stellarium with a few more bits to it, Starry Night came with my Orion scope not sure I like it at all and still trying to come to terms with Maxim DL 5, given to me as a gift by a friend in the states.

Adrian

[multiweb]

Bummer! they don't offer downloadable versions?

[marki]

Strange Marc I downloaded mine. Dave go for Starry Night 6 Pro, its just better. The sky 6 is not very intuitive (I have both) and unless you are planning to get a paramount ME I really wouldn't bother. SN and Maxim get on very well. Maxim will not work with the sky as far as I have tried.

Mark

[AlexN]

I've used both configurations..
The Sky 6 with CCDSoft
Starry Night 6 Pro Plus with MaximDL V5...

Currently I use Starry Night 6 Pro Plus with MaximDL, I find it much more user friendly.. The issue is this. Starry Night is much more intuitive than The Sky, however I prefer CCDSoft to MaximDL, I find CCDSoft to be a lot easier to use and things just work how they are supposed to. Maxim has taken time to come to terms with... I'm getting there though.

Starry Nights requires a lot more PC grunt than The Sky 6 though, and I feel that The Sky 6 has a better database of stars Starry Night doesn't display stars below mag10 I dont think, where as in The Sky 6, as you zoom in, more stars and background galaxies are shown...

Starry Night 6 + Maxim is the way to go unless you're using an SBIG camera and a Paramount ME (or a Gemini based GOTO mount..)

[dpastern]

Marc - yeah they do, but I gave it a thought and decided on a proper CD/DVD install medium. Several reasons:

1) cd-r/dvd-r medium are very unreliable.

2) I really wanted the printed manual - I really dislike reading manuals in PDF format on screen. I'm really old fashioned and much prefer a book!

Mark - mmm food for thought. The only thing I'm worried about is I've heard stories about Starry Night 6 Pro being well...problematic to say the least. From what I've seen/read, it seems to not be very stable.

I have Sky 5 and it seems OK, although I don't (yet) spend enough time using it. I've just bought astroplanner as well. I do plan to get ccdsoft, and ccd inspector. I'm tempted @ ccdstack as well, sometimes it's nice to have a range of software to choose from. I could be really bad and get Sky 6 and Starry Night 6 Pro lol...

Dave

[dpastern]

Thanks Alex. All good advice. Since my income is relatively disposable, I'll probably end up getting it all lol!

Dave

[AlexN]

Save the money, and get CCDSoft free with an STL11k and The Sky 6 free with a paramount! :) teeheehee! :D

[dpastern]

Oh you are BAD! BAD BAD BAD rofl!!!!

I wish I could afford those babies, although I'd really prefer a AP1200 to the Paramount ME. Dunno why, but AP's look far sexier to my eyes ;-)

Dave

[AlexN]

probably because the AP1200 is a better mount :P haha (don't let paramount users hear you say that though!! :) )

Yea, Dare to dream Dave... Dare to dream..

Im sitting on the wait list for an AP mount.. I doubt I'll have the coin the first time Im called up... not to worry.. theres always next time, and the time after.... aaaaannnd the time after that ! :D

[dpastern]

Oh, I'm aiming for an AP900 - the AP1200 is too big to be really portable, and there's no real way I can get an observatory here :( I can live with spending 15k on a really good mount, but stretching 40k on a RC 12.5", no matter how good...I just can't justify (yet).

Dave

[AlexN]

Exactly mate... Exactly... I'd rather have the mount with good optics for $20k total than the mount with an RCOS for 45~50k..

Ps. AP1200, Easily portable.. splits into two parts, each section is less than 20kgs.... wack it on the AP 38" portable pier and you're a go! :) The cost difference between the 900GTO and the 1200GTO is only a few grand, and its nearly double the payload capacity.. Do you know how many DSLR + ED80 setups you could run on an AP1200 at once! :D haha!! I reckon about 20 + 1x ST80 +QHY5 for guiding... That way, you could capture 20x20min subs in 20 minutes.. Think about it!!! Efficiency!! 6hrs 40min data captured in 20 minutes.. Awesome! :)

Like I said - Dare to dream.. :)

[dpastern]

ooh you're such a bad influence! I'm very tempted by the AP1200 - it's only another 2k or so, and as you said, double the payload. From what I've seen, the Paramount/AP/Tak mounts are all very close in terms of performance/accuracy/build quality/beauty. I'm a long way from justifying something like that, but as you said - "dare to dream".

Dave

[madwayne]

Hi Dave

Good choice re Maxim. I have been using it now for around 12 months and would be completely lost without it.

I saw your other post on tutorials. The tutorials in the help are written in plain English and plenty of pictures. There should be ample there to get you going. You should also think about joining Maxim DL's Yahoo Group as well.

There are also lots of nice add ons for Maxim. A sky flat plug in if you don't have a light box as well as Focus Max (if you have a motorised focusser) are a couple of add ons that you should investigate. And then there is Pin Point, a fantastic part of Maxim that enables you to centre objects with a click, or two, of your mouse. From memory alot of setup time required for this and a huge download for the star catalogues but well worth the trouble in my opinion.

Enjoy your software, and keep asking questions once you have it. Now is a very nice time to be buying it too :).

Wayne

[cfranks]

Additionally, Maxpoint is an excellent addition to Maxim.

After paying $94USD for shipping of Sky6, 4CD's + 1 DVD, I asked Software Bisque for a Download of CCDSoft (after I paid of course) :) They obliged, so ask the question when you get to that stage.

Charles

[dpastern]

Wayne - I've been a member of the maxim dl yahoo group for a while now, just don't read the posts (too many for me to keep up with). I do get the digests emailed to me, and they are all archived, so I'll have to go through and check them all out at my own leisure.

Are the plugs in free? By pinpoint, do you mean maxpoint? I elected not to get that because of price considerations, and doing some research showing that software bisques pointing software, t-point was far better. Since I do intend to get ccdsoft (and probably t point down the track), I felt it wasn't needed.

And yes, now is the best time to buy, our Aussie dollar is very strong against the greenback at the moment. I timed it well, and it was a large part of my decision to get it this pay. And it's part of the reason behind getting ccdsoft/sky6 next pay. I can easily get starry night pro 6 plus from Bintel down the track, as well. Go me. It can't hurt to have all of this wonderful software can it?

Charles - you read my mind about maxpoint/possible download/purchase in the future.

Dave

[madwayne]

Hi again Dave

No it is not Max Point, I hadn't heard of that till it was mentioned here and in another post by Sandy (White Rabbit). It is definitely Pin Point, to find it you click on analyse in the main Maxim window then pin point astronomy. Click on the process tab on the window that pops up and Maxim goes off searching the star fields on the image. Once it is finished it beeps and the close button lights up. You close that window, click on the observatory tab and then go to the telescope tab. Click on sync and then solved postion. Then you go to the catalogue tab on the observatory window, select your object from the menu and hit go to. Maxim then centres your object. It will sometimes take two goes to get it dead centre but that is all. Do all this while you aren't guiding of course. A quick 30 second exposure and then just to confirm everything click on the zoom tab in the observatory window. Right click and select overlay image, Maxim will then plate solve your image again and then you can view your overlayed image in Maxim's planetarium on the zoom tab and it will show all the dim fuzzies that you cannot see as well as any other objects that may be just outside your fov if you wanted to reposition everything. For example I can just fit M8/20/21 in my fov, by using the above process I can get it framed in a minute or two including exposure times. Be warned that the star catalogues are very big downloads. If you would like some screen shots please pm me your email address and the next time I am imaging I will do you up a word document with screens shots. I'm hoping to get out Saturday night but the forecast is not looking good so you might have to bare with me.

Sky flats and also Focus Max are free downloads, the URLs are on the Maxim site but if you get stuck trying to find them pm me and I will get them for you or post on the forum and I am sure someone can find them if I don't see your post.

If I were in your shoes I would get hold of Maxim and get to master it, you might just save yourself many hundreds of dollars in other software that you can reinvest in hardware.

It really is a beast of a package. I don't get the image processing part of it, maybe one day, but the stacking and calibration wizard are so easy to use and once stacked I use Photo Shop any way.

All the best with your adventure and sorry for the long post.

Wayne

[gregbradley]

Hi Alex,

I have used CCDsoft mainly because that was what came with the SBIG cameras. I would like an extra slot in the program for planning LRGB and Ha or even more. It only lets you do 4 filtered programmed exposures. Does Maxim allow more?

Greg.

[Ric]

Dont open the box David, you'll let out all those American clouds. :lol:

[madwayne]

Greg

Maxim allows you to do 6 filter changes, this URL http://www.cyanogen.com/help/maximdl/MaxIm-DL.htm will take you to the tutorial for more information. Sorry to Alex for answering your post.

Wayne

PS - your old FSQ is going great guns, fantastic telescope and one I will never part with.

[dpastern]

lol @ Ric!

Dave

[dpastern]

I shall check out Maxim DL for pin point. It sounds similar in some respects to maxpoint, I wonder what the differences are. Thanks for the information and detailed post - very much appreciated. I will look at the plugins as well. I'm only using a Canon DSLR at the moment, but a QHY9 is potentially on the cards in the future.

If you could do a word document with screenshots, that'd be much appreciated. I'm currently digging around the net to try and find as much tutorials as possible for the weekend. I'm hoping (health and clear weather wise) to do some solar viewing/imaging on Saturday and have a crack at m8 and then m31 and maybe tuc 47. :)

By all accounts, maxim dl is a very difficult beast to use, and is not very user friendly. I do hope to overcome this one day :)

Dave