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American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Sun, 01/12/2014 - 22:04
I am looking to purchasing the Mira software and have sent a couple of emails to them over the last week, but have heard nothing back. Does anyone know if they are still operating?
I use their software all the time and really like it.There is a new version, Mira-Pro Version 8 that came out in September. I have it but haven't loaded it yet. I am still using version 7.
It has the slickest image callibration train I have seen in any program. I can literally dump everything into a directory, data frames in whatever filter, darks of whatever time,flats in whatever filter and biases and do a full calibration of the whole gaggle in one pass. The photometry package does stuff I haven't seen in anything else except IRAF, but this is a lot easier to use. Michael's version of SExtractor, FWHM extraction, distance and angle calculations, row, column, and line profiles, 3 D plots, pixel value plots, pixel histograms, contour plots, cosmetic corrections for imagers, Allkinds of filters and pixel math and a scripting language based on Lua if you buy the option. It is really good when you war working with lots of data frames say 100 or more at a time. It manages memory quite well.
I sent an email to both sales and info. I finally gave up and ordered AIP4WIN, good book to have anyway.
I agree that Mira is a great package, which is why I was trying to order it. But given the last news post was in Dec 2012 and nothing shows in the forum and no answers to emails made me think they had decided to get out of the business.
I will try sending to mnewberry and see if that is any better.
I sent an email to both sales and info. I finally gave up and ordered AIP4WIN, good book to have anyway.
I agree that Mira is a great package, which is why I was trying to order it. But given the last news post was in Dec 2012 and nothing shows in the forum and no answers to emails made me think they had decided to get out of the business.
I will try sending to mnewberry and see if that is any better.
Thanks Brad
[/quote]
[quote=CraigNZ]made me think they had decided to get out of the business.[/quote]
Great News, I just got an email back from Michael at Mirametrics. They did apologize for the confusion and can be assured that they are most definitely actively in the business of providing high end photometric software. Thanks Brad for giving me Michaels' email address .. that did the trick. Now to place an order and get started.
Well, I also gave Michael a little nudge. I e-mailed him a copy of your post and suggested that unless he was really out of business, he probably didn't want to create the impression that he was.
You never know. I just saw that Robin Casady Astro-accessories was getting out of the business. Too bad. they made great stuff I have one of their tandem bars with a TGAD for my FSQ 106 and it really simplifies aligning it, or deliberately mis-aligning it, with the main scope.
If you are referring to Mira-Pro or mira-Pro UE, I think the latest version is 8. At least I know that was out in beta version 3rd quarter last year. I have version 7 of Mira-pro UE. I haven't upgraded to 8 yet.
If you look on the Mirametrics website there is a version comparison Chart. There is also I product Called MX. That product was not created primarliy for astronomical image processing. It can do it but you have to get the free add-ins and you also pay for stuff that is meant primarily for laboratory imaging.
I rang them this morning but got an answering machine.
They are sometimes a bit slow responding to support@mirametrics.com. Try
sales@mirametrics.com Theresa O'Brien is good about answering, and if that doesn't work, try mnewberry@mirametrics.com. that generally gets Michael's attention.
I use their software all the time and really like it.There is a new version, Mira-Pro Version 8 that came out in September. I have it but haven't loaded it yet. I am still using version 7.
It has the slickest image callibration train I have seen in any program. I can literally dump everything into a directory, data frames in whatever filter, darks of whatever time,flats in whatever filter and biases and do a full calibration of the whole gaggle in one pass. The photometry package does stuff I haven't seen in anything else except IRAF, but this is a lot easier to use. Michael's version of SExtractor, FWHM extraction, distance and angle calculations, row, column, and line profiles, 3 D plots, pixel value plots, pixel histograms, contour plots, cosmetic corrections for imagers, Allkinds of filters and pixel math and a scripting language based on Lua if you buy the option. It is really good when you war working with lots of data frames say 100 or more at a time. It manages memory quite well.
Brad Walter.
I sent an email to both sales and info. I finally gave up and ordered AIP4WIN, good book to have anyway.
I agree that Mira is a great package, which is why I was trying to order it. But given the last news post was in Dec 2012 and nothing shows in the forum and no answers to emails made me think they had decided to get out of the business.
I will try sending to mnewberry and see if that is any better.
Thanks Brad
[quote=CraigNZ]
I sent an email to both sales and info. I finally gave up and ordered AIP4WIN, good book to have anyway.
I agree that Mira is a great package, which is why I was trying to order it. But given the last news post was in Dec 2012 and nothing shows in the forum and no answers to emails made me think they had decided to get out of the business.
I will try sending to mnewberry and see if that is any better.
Thanks Brad
[/quote]
[quote=CraigNZ]made me think they had decided to get out of the business.[/quote]
I hope your wrong, this would be the 2nd AZ astro-company to bite the dust, after RCOS went under last year....see:https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/variablestarssouth/Jh5GTe2pC0o
James
Great News, I just got an email back from Michael at Mirametrics. They did apologize for the confusion and can be assured that they are most definitely actively in the business of providing high end photometric software. Thanks Brad for giving me Michaels' email address .. that did the trick. Now to place an order and get started.
Well, I also gave Michael a little nudge. I e-mailed him a copy of your post and suggested that unless he was really out of business, he probably didn't want to create the impression that he was.
You never know. I just saw that Robin Casady Astro-accessories was getting out of the business. Too bad. they made great stuff I have one of their tandem bars with a TGAD for my FSQ 106 and it really simplifies aligning it, or deliberately mis-aligning it, with the main scope.
Brad.
Hi,
If you are refering to AIP4WIN ver 2, as far a I can gather you need to do the following:
Update to ver 2.4.0 at http://www.willbell.com/aip4win/AIP.htm
Then follow the instructions at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AIP4Win-Photometry/conversations/topics/968 This is the update to the beta version 2.4.8 which fixes some bugs. As far as I can tell this is the latest beta version.
John
If you are referring to Mira-Pro or mira-Pro UE, I think the latest version is 8. At least I know that was out in beta version 3rd quarter last year. I have version 7 of Mira-pro UE. I haven't upgraded to 8 yet.
If you look on the Mirametrics website there is a version comparison Chart. There is also I product Called MX. That product was not created primarliy for astronomical image processing. It can do it but you have to get the free add-ins and you also pay for stuff that is meant primarily for laboratory imaging.
Here is the URL
http://www.mirametrics.com/product_comparison.htm