User`s guide

186 Starry Night User’s Guide
MaxIm DL Plug-In (Windows
only)
For years, the software program MaxIm
DL from Diffraction Limited has been the
premiere package for astronomical CCD
imaging and image processing.
Now you can target and capture an image
in Starry Night with a plug-in to MaxIm
DL. This innovative integration lets you
find your target, take and process images
with MaxIm DL and then import these
pictures back into Starry Night. Take your
passion for the night sky to new heights
with the ability to create your own
stunning astrophotography.
Note: MaxIm DL Advanced CCD Imaging
Sotware is available only for Windows and
is sold separately.
Example: Capturing images with
Starry Night and MaxIm DL
1 Open Starry Night. The plug-in is
installed by default.
2 Open MaxIm DL and have your tele-
scope and camera ready for imaging.
3 Using Starry Night, find a target you are
interested in imaging.
4Open the Telescope pane in Starry
Night.
5Expand the Imaging layer to reveal a
set of imaging controls. Press the
Acquire Image button to tell MaxIm DL
to take a picture of the current camera
field (where the telescope is pointing).
6 Control is passed to MaxIm DL, which
now takes a picture.
7 After MaxIm DL captures the image,
press the Import Image button in the
Imaging layer of the Telescope pane of
Starry Night to import the image from
MaxIm DL into the Starry Night Image Edi-
tor window.
8 In the Image Editor window, you can
adjust the size, rotation, name, notes and
other parameters of the image, to match it
to the background sky (this will be done
automatically if you have MaxIm DL per-
form a ‘PinPoint’ astrometry function on
the image before import).
It is that easy. Your image is now stored in
Starry Night and can be viewed at any
time by checking the User Images box in
the Deep Space layer of the Options pane.
Tip: Images are saved in the User Images
folder and User Images.txt file located by
default under C:\Program Files\Starry
Night Pro Plus 5\Sky Data. We suggest you
backup this folder and file from time to
time.
Plug-in settings: Pressing the Settings
button allow you to specify the exposure
time and binning for the image. Binning
shrinks the image by combining adjacent
pixels together into a single "super-pixel".
Note: Plug-in requires MaxIm DL version
4.0.7 and higher.
About MaxIm DL: MaxIm DL is the fastest
and easiest way to image the night sky.
Whether you want to produce stunning
portraits, collect science data, or hunt for
new objects, MaxIm DL has the tools you
need.