Finding instrulemntal magnitude in Maxim DL to get transform coefficient

Sun, 03/20/2016 - 16:17

Hi, so i assume to get the instrumental magnitude, i would use "Information Window" in Maxim Dl. But what calibration settings should i use? Or should i leave it to Intensity=1, Exposure=1, and Magnitude=10, as it was already there when i see it.

If i use 120 sec of say 5 exposures to get a combined image of 600 sec, should i use the Exposure Value of 120 sec or 600 sec?

Please help!

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Inst Mags

Hello

Are you going to use TG? (or its new name?)  If so, and I am as hard core Maxim User as you can get, I suggest using Vphot for this.  I found it so much easier.

Gary

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Inst Mags

To:  Umair,

To use Vphot you have to have AASVO membership. ($75 p/year).  Before uploading into Vphot, make sure you have no () in your filename.  Also make sure you plate solve and save the images in Maxim or Vphot will not be able to match your M67 or NGC 7790 fields.  These are the two open cluster fields that TG (calculates the transforms from the resultant Vphot instrumental magnitude txt files) and TA (applies the calculated transform coeffiecients to you raw Maxim data) uses.  It sounds a little complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it takes less than 10 minutes to to this whole process over again. 

Theortically, you only need to calculate your transform coefficients one or twice a year, but I usually do it every other month to make sure my imaging system (filters/CCD/telescope) is stable.  Hopefully, AASVO will hold another CCD Transform workshop for new users of Vphot.   Before this AASVO program was available I was struggling with calculating transform coeffiecients and playing with all these spreadsheets the "old-timers" like Gary enjoy....Vphot, TG, & TA are much easier to use and less likely to result in bogus Transforms from people who DONT enjoy reading a 1000 line spreadsheet.  Below are links for TG & TA.

James

https://www.aavso.org/transform

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Using Maxim

If using Maxim v6.x for TG,  Use the photometry module (analyze, photometry) instead of the information window.  Tag all of the the starts you are including as new objects.  You can select any random star as ref and chk, the TG program will just ignore them.  In CSV export options select Instrumental Magnitude.  Export the file as a CSV file.  The file will include the magnitude and the Insturmental magnitude (by default Maxim includes the magnitude in any CSV file).  Its ok because TG will ignore magnitude and will look at the instrumental magnitude only.  Email me if you have any other questions.

 

Barbara