A quick guide to guiding using Maxim DL

[roundycat]

Hi all,

this started in that other place, thought it might be useful to someone.

http://www.dens-astropics.org.uk/page%2018.htm#top

Dennis

[George]

A well put together primer Dennis, Ive always shied away from using Maxim as its not very user friendly (in my eye's at any rate) I'll definitely give it a go now Ive read your primer....cheers

[Tim]

Yeh, I find Maxim a bit intimidating, and so purchased Nebulosity instead. I'll read this though, so thanks.

EDIT: Right, that seems a lot clearer now. Dennis, as an experienced imager, have you found that the extra settings are useful or have enhanced things for you?

I have used PHD from the start really, and find that ever so user friendly. Would you say that Maxim offers any advantages? It seems that Monsieur Stark refers indirectly to Maxim when he discusses his reasons for Nebulosity and PHD, as being clunky and hard to use in the field.

One thing I wonder about especially is how well PHD copes with poor seeing, and what options Maxim has to smooth out the movements without bloating the stars?

Thanks for sharing that Dennis. Will you be attending any of the usual star parties?

Tim

[roundycat]

one of the problems with doing something like this is, people ask questions and then you look like a right thicko.

Tim, you question the extra settings but I don't know what you mean. I have only ever used Maxim so cannot compare it with any other software that is around. Therefore I don't know what is extra - extra to what?

Something about one man's meat being another's poison comes to mind. PHD and Nebulosity are complete mysteries to me, never even seen them let alone used them. I cannot see any problem with using Maxim at any time. I used to go on the road to get to a dark site and I used to image from my backyard in the light of Greater London where I set up each night. Now I have it all permanent and none of it makes any difference to Maxim. Connect the wires, switch on, connect the software, expose, calibrate and track. The only difficulty I have ever had is with calibration and that usually comes down to something mechanical.

As for smoothing out seeing, I would use longer exposure, more binning (filters if necessary to avoid over exposure) reduced agressiveness or even de-focusing. Probably in that order.

Dennis

[Tim]

OK, no problem. I think PushHereDummy was written with me in mind

Thanks for the tips on smoothing, i'll try some of those next time its jumpy