Running two cameras on the same laptop?

[aparker]

I have a small Orion autoguider (50mm scope plus little CCD camera) that I acquired during a brief flirtation with DSLR astrophotography.  I am thinking it might make a great e-finder to go along with viewing through my Celestron using the Lodestar.

Does anyone have ideas about how to run two cameras on the same computer - presumably in two different applications?  For that matter, any experience with software for Mac that will run the Orion starshoot guider?  I don't even need it to guide, really - just image with that wide-angle 132 mm focal length...

Thanks!

[Astroboffin]

Hi,

I run two cameras on one laptop, an Atik CCD and SX Lodestar, using APT for imaging and PHD for the lodestar guiding, it will work perfectly fine.

I have also done the same thing with other software too, so hope that helps.

Obviously problems will arise if you have two cameras the same as they will require the same driver, but that's not an issue here.

AB

[Spacedout]

Have you tried a DVR?  I use 4 cameras which all feed into a DVR.  The DVR feeds into my Dazzle grabber which then feeds into the PC giving me 4 cameras to flick between.  

Best of luck

[JamesF]

I believe the Starshoot Autoguider is actually a QHY5.  oaCapture for OSX should be able to control that, though it may not (yet) provide all the functionality you're after.  Come to think of it, it should also work with the Lodestar, but I haven't coded support for binning on the Lodestar yet.  I'd certainly be pleased to know whether oaCapture does actually work with the Starshoot if you're able to test it.

James

[stash_old]

Have you tried a DVR?  I use 4 cameras which all feed into a DVR.  The DVR feeds into my Dazzle grabber which then feeds into the PC giving me 4 cameras to flick between.  

Best of luck

If your DVR allows full resolution network access to video  you can just have a browser tab open per channel no need for the Dazzle Grabber as you are recording already via the DVR -         or am I missing something here  ?

Camera's that use USB route have a different problem and depends on how well the software has been written - i.e. does it multitask(multiple instances for you younger people) correctly. 

[aparker]

Hi,

I run two cameras on one laptop, an Atik CCD and SX Lodestar, using APT for imaging and PHD for the lodestar guiding, it will work perfectly fine.

I have also done the same thing with other software too, so hope that helps.

Obviously problems will arise if you have two cameras the same as they will require the same driver, but that's not an issue here.

AB

I think this is what I'm going to do - the new Open PHD2 runs on OSX, so I'm going to try to run the Orion on PHD2 and the Lodestar on LL.  

Thanks for the suggestion.