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