CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: CCDSoft V.5 vs MaximDL

Kim: It's easy to share...but what you do with it is your responsibility! LOL!

Both software has a similar control set, though now that I think of it, MaxIm's scope control features are a little more robust...MaxIm programs those into the program whereas CCDsoft figures you'll use TheSKY for that, and it does indeed integrate well with it...then again, so does MaxIm.

Image sequence controls are similar in practice, though I do like the fact that MaxIm can sequence filtered images in mostly any order you choose. CCDsoft will always run them in order, L through B in an LRGB data set.

Autoguiding is straightforward in both programs, first starting with a guidestar frame (snap shot), calibration, and then execution. Again, MaxIm is more intuitive here, showing the calibration in real-time (CCDsoft has you affirm calibration afterward in a completely separate window). Autoguiding itself is easy, as MaxIm allows aggressiveness settings to be changed on the fly...which I believe CCDsoft now does as well. I do like the AO implementation in CCDSoft, though...haven't used that feature in MaxIm yet, so I can't comment.

MaxIm has built in dithering for your exposures, CCDsoft does not, but that is supplied in a third party plug-in. Deblooming is another issue, as I like MaxIm's version of it...quick and simple. CCDsoft, I believe, does not have a debloomer, though I could care less really since I will normally use either MaxIm or CCDStack for that anyway...which leads to image calibrations...

Doing darks, flats, bias, etc. is the weakness of CCDsoft, IMO. While it does them, it's not as cohesive a process as it is in MaxIm or CCDstack. MaxIm lets you work on all the processes at once, and it intellegently makes the proper reductions based on time and temp. For example, you could just throw all your calibration frames into a big folder. MaxIm will pair up files automatically, including producing "master darks, flats, and biases," and then use the appropriate files on the correct lights, matched to temperature and length. And it gives options of scaling and calibration-type (average, median, etc.) within the same dialogue. On the other hand, CCDSoft does everything separately, darks in one dialogue, flats in another, without the possibility of scaling. Even then, you have to perform each calibration on one single light frame as you can't handle them in a batch. If you are going to do master darks, you must prepared those yourself beforehand. In other words, the CCDsoft dialog only allows for single images to be chosen.

Really, the differences in the two programs has less to do with WHAT they are doing, but HOW they do them. MaxIm is the more elegant and powerful program in that regard. However, as was stated above by somebody else, a newbie can be a little bit more overwhelmed by MaxIm at first, especially in the calibration box where you have so many choices...but even then, to MaxIm's credit, it has some simple wizards that will let you setup calibrations that way.

I'd just say that CCDsoft does pretty much what you need it to do. If you want to do things well, you'll either want MaxIm at some point or you'll want to supplement CCDsoft with a copy of CCDStack...which has no pier when it comes to calibrations, IMO, other than perhaps something like Mira, which nobody uses because it's too darn expensive.

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jay
www.allaboutastro.com