Laptop for DSLR or no...

[Razz]

I posted this under my thread "DSLR" in the Beginner Astrophotography section but got no responses...I figured I'll try here....While waiting for the camera to arrive, which it did yesterday, I did a lot of reading about astrophotography. It got complicated very quickly so I narrowed it down to just using a DSLR. I played around with the camera a bit to get used to it's features, no night shots yet. If the skies allow, I'm going to try taking a few night sky pics to get started this weekend. I know I can tie the camera into my Az/Gte mount and it will take continuous 60 second exposures. Honestly, I don't know if I can change that because I haven't played around with it yet. That I can figure out on my own. I downloaded PIPP and Autostakkert on my main PC because I've seen them mentioned several times for image processing...I do have a question...I don't have a laptop yet but would a newbie like me benefit from something like NINA? And if so, would a laptop like this be good enough?

https://www.newegg.com/hp640g3nwc-gb-ev ... 666-_--_-1

[SkyHiker]

PIPP and Autostakkert are for planetary AP, which is best done with longer focal length and aperture than your 80 mm. It will be fine for DSOs though. The main concern is that the mount is an Alt/Az. This will limit your exposure time with a scope to about 20 seconds before tracking errors and field rotation will set in. That can still work if you take many exposures and stack them. The tolerance with a DSLR will be better.

That laptop looks fine to me and is a great deal at $130. The stacking may take hours to complete depending on the number of exposures, but late at night who cares.

For what you want to do, in first instance you just need a stacking program like DSS, for instance. However, if it turns out that alignment is a problem and you have tracking errors, then Nina and PHD2 (once you get an autoguider) can help with plate solving. I found this reference, it looks promising. Just keep in mind that Alt/Az has limitations and that the weight capacity is limited.

[Juno16]

Hi Razz,

Congratulations on your new camera! You will have a blast!
I must warn you (as I am sure that other’s have) AP is very addictive. You might not think so at this point, but your desires might change as you get more into it. The desire to get better images is very, very hard to temper!

But, you are starting the right way (in my opinion). Small and slow.

AP has a lot of complexities and for me, I learned and appreciated conquering every step. If I ever go mono, I will have a big (and new) collection of hurdles!

As for capturing lunar and solar images, I would think that one idea could be an intervalometer. A device that connects to your camera that will let you schedule the number of exposures and duration. It is simple and gets the job done.
I’ve been using N.I.N.A. For awhile and I think that it might be able to accomplish your goal of lunar and solar imaging, to me it seems more geared to long exposure deep sky imaging where you will expose for several seconds to several minutes. N.I.N.A also controls many other aspects of the imaging process like the scope, focuser, guiding, and lots of other stuff.
I know that you can do fractions of a second exposures (like you would be using for lunar/solar work) but there are probably better choices of software out there.
N.I.N.A. Has been amazing software for me doing deep sky work and I love it. Just about any laptop will run it. I use a 9 year old Dell Latitude for imaging that runs N.I.N.A., PHD2 (for guiding), Green Swamp Server (for running the ascom drivers), Kstars (for previewing captured images), Cartes du ceil (sky atlas that integrates with N.I.N.A =. To go to targets (don’t really need it, but I use it all of the time), and TeamViewer (to wirelessly run the outside laptip==op from my phone, ipad, or desktop pc in the house or actually anywhere. The old laptop runs it all easily with only 8g of ddr3 ram (older).
If you decide to check out N.I.N.A., I would recommend that you just install it on your inside pc (if you have one). You can connect your camera (with the appropriate cable) and play around with it at no cost (before you buy a laptop anyway).

Maybe someone else will stop by. On this thread and give you some better ideas.

Mark (thefatkitty) does a bunch of lunar and solar work. You really should get his input.

Good Luck!!!

[Razz]

PIPP and Autostakkert are for planetary AP, which is best done with longer focal length and aperture than your 80 mm. It will be fine for DSOs though. The main concern is that the mount is an Alt/Az. This will limit your exposure time with a scope to about 20 seconds before tracking errors and field rotation will set in. That can still work if you take many exposures and stack them. The tolerance with a DSLR will be better.

That laptop looks fine to me and is a great deal at $130. The stacking may take hours to complete depending on the number of exposures, but late at night who cares.

For what you want to do, in first instance you just need a stacking program like DSS, for instance. However, if it turns out that alignment is a problem and you have tracking errors, then Nina and PHD2 (once you get an autoguider) can help with plate solving. I found this reference, it looks promising. Just keep in mind that Alt/Az has limitations and that the weight capacity is limited.

Thank you for the advice. I did download DSS, just forgot to mention it. Thanks for the link. Eventually, I plan on getting an EQ mount, but for now I just want to see if I can get into astrophotography.

[Razz]

Hi Razz,

Congratulations on your new camera! You will have a blast!
I must warn you (as I am sure that other’s have) AP is very addictive. You might not think so at this point, but your desires might change as you get more into it. The desire to get better images is very, very hard to temper!

But, you are starting the right way (in my opinion). Small and slow.

AP has a lot of complexities and for me, I learned and appreciated conquering every step. If I ever go mono, I will have a big (and new) collection of hurdles!

As for capturing lunar and solar images, I would think that one idea could be an intervalometer. A device that connects to your camera that will let you schedule the number of exposures and duration. It is simple and gets the job done.
I’ve been using N.I.N.A. For awhile and I think that it might be able to accomplish your goal of lunar and solar imaging, to me it seems more geared to long exposure deep sky imaging where you will expose for several seconds to several minutes. N.I.N.A also controls many other aspects of the imaging process like the scope, focuser, guiding, and lots of other stuff.
I know that you can do fractions of a second exposures (like you would be using for lunar/solar work) but there are probably better choices of software out there.
N.I.N.A. Has been amazing software for me doing deep sky work and I love it. Just about any laptop will run it. I use a 9 year old Dell Latitude for imaging that runs N.I.N.A., PHD2 (for guiding), Green Swamp Server (for running the ascom drivers), Kstars (for previewing captured images), Cartes du ceil (sky atlas that integrates with N.I.N.A =. To go to targets (don’t really need it, but I use it all of the time), and TeamViewer (to wirelessly run the outside laptip==op from my phone, ipad, or desktop pc in the house or actually anywhere. The old laptop runs it all easily with only 8g of ddr3 ram (older).
If you decide to check out N.I.N.A., I would recommend that you just install it on your inside pc (if you have one). You can connect your camera (with the appropriate cable) and play around with it at no cost (before you buy a laptop anyway).

Maybe someone else will stop by. On this thread and give you some better ideas.

Mark (thefatkitty) does a bunch of lunar and solar work. You really should get his input.

Good Luck!!!

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully @Thefatkitty will chime in. Eventually I'd like to get into DSO but for now Lunar/Solar/Planetary will work just fine. I did get this as well... I may just buy the laptop to have it for the future...

[JayTee]

Fortunately you do not need a high-end laptop to have it run your AP rig. Even a used Dell Latitude with an i5 processor is more than enough to do all you need to do. Once again you don't have to spend a lot of money to get started.

Cheers