Ad Astra Observatory

At 09:33 AM 3/17/2008 -0700, you wrote:
>On Mar 17, 2008, at 8:51 AM, Jimbo S. Harris wrote:

>>>My money, if I had any, would have burst into flame by now at
>>>AstroMart.
>>
>>Other than that QHY 5, I haven’t seen any StarShoot Autoguiders for
>>sale on the ‘mart
>
>At this time, I do not think you will see any other Orion StarShoots
>on the ‘Mart. Orion is having a challenge staying up with their

>orders, so I do not think you will see one used

I figured as much. $250 is pretty cheap. If I can get one new, I probably will.

>Speaking of pondering. The bracket is made and the Robo is on the
>NP-127, which seems extremely small to the C-11 or the SN-10. I do
>not know if it has round stars yet. It is clean……

Nice! Looking forward to a second First Light.

>>I figure if I’m going to saddle myself with spendy software and

>>force myself to learn a whole new workflow, I might as well get
>>guiding out of it, too.
>>
>>Only 3 days left on the demo.
>After all of this, I am not sure if I would buy Max in your case.
>There are other possible solutions that may make work flow a good deal
>easier and more direct with the equipment that you have.

You understand, of course, that I’ve already *bought* Max. I just haven’t

busted out the registration on it yet so I could in theory sell it on the
‘mart for full sticker, seeing how it’s unused and unregistered and all.

>I am not just not sure the expense is worth it. I know I would be trying
>other
>stuff…… hardware and software and work flow….

I’m still seriously considering this. Here’s what I come up with:

Have to have:
1 drive D70 bulb
2 read D70 files
3 drive guider
4 drive telescope
5 drive focuser

Nice to have:
6 autofocus

7 fewer open windows at a time
8 everything running in one OS
9 future expandability
10 choice of JPEG or not
11 choice of darkframes or not
12 sequences, grouping, calibration
13 inexpensive

solution: What I get: What I give up: Comments:

MaxDSLR 1,2,3,5,6,7,9,12 4,10,11,13 Max does a
lot of stuff in one package, and feels future proof. But the new workflow
adds
toughness, and it feels a little square-peg-round-hole and draconian with the
stuff
that “barely works” and the missing features (like telescope control).

DSLRShutter 1,2,3*,4,5,8,11,13! 6,7!,9,12 I picked
this set of programs because they’re all free (except NC and SD). Also
Nikon
Capture all of
these will run under MacOS except FocusMax.
PhD (* if not
ST-4) I can
continue to use this set of apps to get done most of what I want, and

Cartes du Ceil (or ScopeDriver) now
that my observatory seems more like it’s actually on the ‘net, visibility
is OK.
FocusMax
I gain back my JPEG workflow (although I lose the calibration groups, so
darks are
Registax
out)

The bottom line is that Max does a lot but costs me in workflow and also
requires that I run Windows on my Mac (which means I get to pay for Max and
then also for VMWare and then also fight M$ about the license for XP). I
think I have most of the kinks worked out of the workflow. But it’s
definitely a “if it ain’t broke” situation, because I don’t think that Max

is going to afford me the flexibility to change hardware at will.

Working with a bunch of free software will get the job done, but it’s lots
of separate apps and lots of individual configuration and going “all Mac”
may end up not working in the long run anyway (I don’ t think there’s a Mac
replacement for FocusMax, nor PhD if I keep the ST-4).

At the moment, I’m leaning towards keeping Max. I needed to learn to shoot

RAW anyway, right? And maybe the onerous task of processing the new images
is about the same as Registax. Now I just need to get Windows validated…

J