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One laptop for image capture and processing?

ZWO ASIAIR Plus Equipment Beginner Buying Advice
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Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Hi, 

I'm thinking of getting an asiair plus/mini, not sure which, and would like to do planetary and dso imaging. I understand so far, I think, that for planetary I would be best to directly connect the camera to the laptop and use sharpcap or firecapture. For dso, I understand the asiair is the weapon of choice, for beginners. But, here it seems I can connect it wirelessly to a laptop and use an android emulator like bluestacks or ldplayer or wsa(if Windows 11). So, clearly, there is a capture and post capture phase. My question is, do any of you use one laptop to do both, and if yes what spec do you have? I'm looking for minimum cost, which usually means minimum spec, and I suspect the latter will be more associated with post capture. 

Any help is greatly appreciated. And feel free to add any additional suggestions to the easiest way to set things up. 

Thanks 
Mark
Chris Sulyma - SeaWolf Astrophotography avatar
Chris Sulyma - SeaWolf Astrophotography avatar
Hi Mark,

I use an MSI Katana 12th Gen RTX4060 for both my capture and processing. I do a mix of planetary/lunar and DSO with it with no issues. Stacking and stretching is all done on it, as well. It's $1700CAD, though, so I am not sure what your budget is. 

I'd say you're absolutely correct on the direct-connection for solar system shooting (I get horrific FPS drops if going through the USB hub. Not noticeable for DSO, however). I otherwise feed everything through a powered USB hub and then connect via one USB cable to the laptop. I haven't used ASIAir. I have heard of people using Bluestacks to emulate Android for ASIAir connection with success, however.

CS,

Chris
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Adrian Webster avatar
Adrian Webster avatar
I must admit to being one of the weird people on the Apple architecture. I do all my post processing on a Mac Book pro. It runs the main programs I need (PixInsight and Affinity Photo) and it talks seamlessly with my iPad, iPhone and ASIAirPlus. It is also small and light enough that I can walk out to my garden with it, and via USB C, download the many gigs of data from the ASIairPlus straight on it, ready for processing and post processing.

I know Windows has more options, but I'm happy that as I was already onboard with Apple, that it does work well with ZWO products.
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Daniele Borsari avatar
Daniele Borsari avatar
Hi,

I've been using for almost a year a laptop that was gifted to me, for the capture phase. I use N.I.N.A. and PHD2 as softwares to control astro camera, guide camera and goto mount.

The laptop is a not so new (around 2016) ASUS with 4 cores, 4 threads, 4GB of RAM and an HDD. For the capture phase it holds up quite good and I can also do planetary without any framerate drop (keep in mind I have a ZWO ASI533MC which has a small sensor).

For the post capture phase, though, I use a PC I built in 2021. It has a Ryzen 5 5600G (due to the GPU shortage present during that period), 16GB of RAM, an NVME SSD and a recently added RTX4070 that I can also use to accelerate AI processes in PixInsight.

The capture phase is not very dependent on PC specs but the processing part (especially stacking) can get quite faster with better specs.

This is my experience and I have to say that my "old" laptop already struggles when you try to open a single frame in PixInsight, but it simply does good enough on the capture phase.

The best thing for you, probably, is to buy something relatively cheap that works well for capturing and invest a bit more for the processing PC.

Daniele
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Nick Grundy avatar
Nick Grundy avatar
depending on the budget, I'd recommend 2 separate computers if you ever run on battery for imaging. 

I have an MSI Raider i9 I do a lot of processing on, however it draws a lot of power. I have a separate small beelink PC that stays on my mount and all it does it image. 

It's more costly, but then I don't worry about interrupting imaging processes accidentally when using my laptop. I start the sequencer in nina and I can just check in occassionally by remoting into the beelink. (often while processing on my MSI laptop)
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CCDMike avatar
CCDMike avatar
Cheers,

I would also recommend an old one for capturing during the night.
Here in Germany the winters can be very cold and throughout the year almost misty.
A very old win-laptop that can handle this suffering does the job very well for me.
I wouldn't leave an expensive new one out even in my backyard.

CS
Mike
Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
Nick Grundy:
depending on the budget, I'd recommend 2 separate computers if you ever run on battery for imaging. 

I have an MSI Raider i9 I do a lot of processing on, however it draws a lot of power. I have a separate small beelink PC that stays on my mount and all it does it image. 

It's more costly, but then I don't worry about interrupting imaging processes accidentally when using my laptop. I start the sequencer in nina and I can just check in occassionally by remoting into the beelink. (often while processing on my MSI laptop)

Hi Nick,
I've heard about these mini PCs, although I was planning on using an asiair for capturing dso, then downloading from that to main laptop. For a cheap laptop for capturing planetary direct from camera, I was looking at refurbished lenovo T430. We have a couple of these already, and theyre reliable work horses. My main concern is their battery life. Having said that, I wouldn't expect to need more than an hour of planetary imaging, if I was shooting one target. This time includes setting up and capturing. At worst two hours. I can always buy a new battery if needed. 
But, then we come to the processing. I don't have a feel for minimum spec here. I don't mind waiting for stacking to happen or if things take 5 seconds instead of 1, as long as it can do the job, rather than collapsing under the strain. 🤣
In terms of i5, i7? RAM - 8,16gb? 500Gb Ssd? What would you suggest? 

Thanks 

Mark
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Nick Grundy avatar
Nick Grundy avatar
I like the idea on the refurbished laptop for capture and I assume it'll stay with the rig. (the mini pc is great, but it'd be nice to have a screen occasionally instead of using my ipad and remote into the mini pc for polar alignment)

For processing, I think you will get what you pay for mostly. But having made some mistakes, here's my list:
  • something with an Nvidia GPU (AMD is ok, but there's apparently a processing tweak that can be done with CUDA to speed it up)
  • 16-32GB of memory
  • NVMe SSD for the main drive
  • do some math on total storage. SER's and AVI's add up fast if you want to keep them so you need to clear them or move them. DSO image files also add up if you do monochrome. Personally, I archive older raw files to cloud storage. make sure to get rid of the raw files for the master calibration files
  • an i7 processor will be fine if the rest of the system specs are good. (i9's are faster, but maybe overrated for this)
  • if you can, run the asiair via ethernet instead of wifi


You can probably search "graphics workstations" and come up with all sorts of designs. I'm sure someone can recommend a specific one. I don't think i'd get the MSI Raider again. It's fast, but not worth the price and the i9 destroys battery life in 2-3 hours if I'm doing any intense work on it. 

if you go with a desktop for the processing station, you can likely get more for your money. If you trust the astromart community, you might be able to find a good deal on something there (no idea why more computer aren't bought/sold there)
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Mark Worthington avatar
Mark Worthington avatar
Nick Grundy:
I like the idea on the refurbished laptop for capture and I assume it'll stay with the rig. (the mini pc is great, but it'd be nice to have a screen occasionally instead of using my ipad and remote into the mini pc for polar alignment)

For processing, I think you will get what you pay for mostly. But having made some mistakes, here's my list:
  • something with an Nvidia GPU (AMD is ok, but there's apparently a processing tweak that can be done with CUDA to speed it up)
  • 16-32GB of memory
  • NVMe SSD for the main drive
  • do some math on total storage. SER's and AVI's add up fast if you want to keep them so you need to clear them or move them. DSO image files also add up if you do monochrome. Personally, I archive older raw files to cloud storage. make sure to get rid of the raw files for the master calibration files
  • an i7 processor will be fine if the rest of the system specs are good. (i9's are faster, but maybe overrated for this)
  • if you can, run the asiair via ethernet instead of wifi


You can probably search "graphics workstations" and come up with all sorts of designs. I'm sure someone can recommend a specific one. I don't think i'd get the MSI Raider again. It's fast, but not worth the price and the i9 destroys battery life in 2-3 hours if I'm doing any intense work on it. 

if you go with a desktop for the processing station, you can likely get more for your money. If you trust the astromart community, you might be able to find a good deal on something there (no idea why more computer aren't bought/sold there)

*Thanks Nick for the very useful and informative reply! A lot to think about. 👍
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MaksPower avatar
MaksPower avatar
Hi, 

I'm thinking of getting an asiair plus/mini, not sure which, and would like to do planetary and dso imaging....

Hi Mark,

I have been through this. At first I used a MacBook Air for image capture - great battery life, great USB bandwidth and fast SSD storage, even when running SharpCap in Windows 10 via Parallels (virtual machine). 

On receiving the ASIAir Plus I now use that and an iPad exclusively in the field for DSO, but for moon/planets the ASIAir isn't fast enough and I still use the MacBook Air for the main camera, due to the fast USB bandwidth and SSD storage.

For stacking and post processing no I would not use a laptop. I did experience cases where PixInsight or AstroPixelProcessor would stop, unable to complete a task, stating not enough physical RAM. I now use a top-spec Mac Studio for this, which is roughly equivalent to a Ryzen Threadripper. Chalk vs cheese...
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Mark Worthington avatar
Mark Worthington avatar
MaksPower:
Hi, 

I'm thinking of getting an asiair plus/mini, not sure which, and would like to do planetary and dso imaging....

Hi Mark,

I have been through this. At first I used a MacBook Air for image capture - great battery life, great USB bandwidth and fast SSD storage, even when running SharpCap in Windows 10 via Parallels (virtual machine). 

On receiving the ASIAir Plus I now use that and an iPad exclusively in the field for DSO, but for moon/planets the ASIAir isn't fast enough and I still use the MacBook Air for the main camera, due to the fast USB bandwidth and SSD storage.

For stacking and post processing no I would not use a laptop. I did experience cases where PixInsight or AstroPixelProcessor would stop, unable to complete a task, stating not enough physical RAM. I now use a top-spec Mac Studio for this, which is roughly equivalent to a Ryzen Threadripper. Chalk vs cheese...

Thanks Nick. Do you think other post capture software would have also struggled?
MaksPower avatar
MaksPower avatar
Collecting it is one thing, basically sustained bandwidth, but the post processing is a real brute force challenge - you’ll want 32G RAM and the fastest machine you can afford.

Persevere with a laptop by all means - if it works - great - but I’m pretty sure you will migrate to something faster later on.

In practice the difference between a current top machine and an average laptop from say 5 years ago turned out to be far greater than you’d think just based on benchmarks.

The other issue with laptops in the field is battery life - and they don’t do well in the cold. Pretty quickly you’ll want an inverter to power it. Then comes a big battery to supply the inverter.
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Astroplantfish avatar
Astroplantfish avatar
MaksPower:
Collecting it is one thing, basically sustained bandwidth, but the post processing is a real brute force challenge - you’ll want 32G RAM and the fastest machine you can afford.

Persevere with a laptop by all means - if it works - great - but I’m pretty sure you will migrate to something faster later on.

In practice the difference between a current top machine and an average laptop from say 5 years ago turned out to be far greater than you’d think just based on benchmarks.

The other issue with laptops in the field is battery life - and they don’t do well in the cold. Pretty quickly you’ll want an inverter to power it. Then comes a big battery to supply the inverter.

*Thanks Nick, and there was me thinking I'd sorted out the requirements, but now I see there are the optics, and then there is the data handling....
Tareq Abdulla avatar
Tareq Abdulla avatar
I bought two mini PCs, one is Beelink Mini S that is only for imaging part, and second one is Morefine S500 with AMD R9 CPU for processing and anything else i do, i gave up my old gaming laptop which has i7-7th gen CPU, while i was even older laptop for capturing data that i no longer use it and gave it to my daughter after i changed drives and installed Win 11, so i am happy with my both mini PCs which they can connect to each other remotely great, i ended up even buy two more another cheap mini PCs for my two new AZ-GTi mounts only for acquisition, my S500 will remain as my processing/general use computer, i still can use my laptop when necessary.
Nick Grundy avatar
Nick Grundy avatar
depending on your priorities, processing more efficiently can really help you if you want to image a lot. But I'm not sure you'll get the same return as you would on pure astro equipment as you will with PC upgrades. 

Until you get completely fed up with processing on a slower laptop, I would put all that towards your astro budget. 

The only exception I would recommend, that I don't see a ton of folks doing, is archiving old raw image data to a cloud repository. It's best to keep your valuable imaging data, but building storage devices and such might not be the best use of your time/money.
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