AstraPharma

That’s a great idea, I own both. I’ll post a video about it and write a full post similar to this one!

Yep, just from what I can remember from the dropdown menu, QHY, ATIK, Player One and many more are all supported!

I was pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of the workflow. It does lack some features like a planetarium/star-map and a rotation adjustment module like the one in the AA+. Nevertheless, when the beta starts coming into its own, I can definitely see myself using this regularly!

Hey guys, new to the forum!! Some friends in China helped me get my hands on the AstroStation to check out in support of my new YouTube channel. I don't want to force my content down your throat, so I thought I should post a written report of my experience here and include the link at the end for those who would like to see it. I received the device in a neat package from China. It seemed like it went through a rough journey to get to me in Kuwait, but nevertheless, the package felt premium and well-presented. The whole unboxing experience was pleasant and satisfying. The device was safely nestled along with its WiFi antenna and what I first thought to be a USB flash drive, which turned out to be a WiFi dongle for some reason. Included were four thin and weak-looking DC power cables (Male to Male 2.1mm*5.5mm) and a similar power cable extender (Female to Male 2.1mm*5.5mm). The device itself has four DC output ports, a DSLR shutter release port, two USB3 input ports, two USB2 input ports, an Ethernet port, and a USB-C connection port for connecting it to other devices such as a PC. All in all, it is exactly the same as the ASIair, with the one notable exception being the SD card slot, which is big enough for a full-sized SD card rather than a MicroSD card in the ASIair. The device came with the mounting wedge already installed at the bottom, as shown in the picture below. It was striking how similar it is to the ASIair. I guess these companies source their boards from similar manufacturers. Anyway, I managed to mount it on the same scope I had my ASIair on. It is so similar that it was a simple matter of unscrewing, switching, and replugging the cables. The app is still unavailable on the iOS store or the Android Play store, though I was able to contact some people in China who provided me the APK to install on an older Android tablet. Please keep in mind that this is a beta, so things may look different later. I didn't know the default password for the unit's hotspot, so I guessed it was 12345678 (the same default password for the ASIair), and that worked! When you open the app, you are greeted with this loading screen briefly. The app then autodetected the unit, and I proceeded to select my equipment. I was pleasantly presented with a list of many different products from many different manufacturers. It seemed that the full INDI library is supported. Here is a screenshot of my mount connected to the unit. There are more options if you scroll down. On the right is where you choose your other equipment, and I will include a screenshot of the drop-down menu for the cameras and focusers. After connecting my equipment, I was able to autofocus with a click of a button and then polar align easily using a three-star alignment process. One weird thing about the plate solving is that you need to wait for the image to download for the app to solve it, unlike the ASIair, which is quite annoying. Also, you need to hit refresh every time after making an adjustment. Finally, I was able to choose a target, and all the relevant catalogs were included, slew to it, plate solve, and center it with no issue. Here is a centered image of M8 (very faint as I'm testing from the Bortle 9 city skies). Everything so far was very smooth and straightforward. However, that was as far as I was able to go, as the guiding module seems to be still a work in progress. In this beta version of the app, it is still broken, and I was not able to guide. It was failing to send guide pulses to my mount from what I was able to discern. I contacted some friends in China, and they confirmed the issue. All in all, my first impression was very positive. The interface was easily navigable, and it had all the options one needs, such as camera cooling and gain setting. It was very responsive and fun to play around with. Final Thoughts This is not a mature product like the ASIair. However, I can easily see it overtaking it in the future, given the freedoms it offers to users. There is a lot of work to be done before the official release, and I hope all the bugs are ironed out. I myself am very excited to see where this goes. Link to the video: