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From my experience you will need a portfolio of overlapping software, posibilities I have tried include:
Stellarium, CDC, The Sky,
Tpoint, Maxpoint
MaximDL, BackyardEOS, APT, PHD, DSLR Shutter, Meade and Celeston Nexstar default telescope / DSI camera control software
FocusMax, Polar Align, Astro Tortilla,
USNO sky catalogues and plate solving star catalogues
CCD Stack, CCD Check, PEMPro, Deep Sky Stacker
Photoshop CS4
To me this is a basic set of over-lapping software as nothing does everything well; you have to mix and match into your workflow to get optimal results.
Secondly some software is inherently more powerful, complex to use (and costly) than others e.g. CCD Stack vs Deep Sky Stacker, or Tpoint vs Maxpoint, or MaximDL guiding vs PHD.
Some parts of data processing workflow are probably best started in CCD Stack, moved to MaximDL and finished in Photoshop CS.
My thoughts!
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