Laptop purchase

[chris285]

I currently own a Skywatcher 130m telescope which I feel is a good starting point, however i'm now getting to the point where I am looking to improve my equipment. Longer term the plan is to get say a HEQ5 pro syntrek with a bigger OTA, however in the shorter term I am looking to get into some basic astro imaging with my setup.

A good friend of mine has kindly lent me his ASUS EEE netbook and his SPC880 flashed to 900, as well as his Celestron XLT 150 scope as well which has given me scope envy over my current kit.

Anyway first step will probably be looking at getting a webcam myself and a laptop to go with it, and basically I would like to know if i decided to go for a macbook if i have made the right choice. I know they are more expensive than a windows equivalent spec, however build quality is normally high and they are good at image processing and its got a decent enough battery life.

I just want to know if its a bad move to make as I am unsure if it will be able to cope with what I want it to do down the line, as eventual plan is to move up to a DSLR for imaging after a webcam and also for guiding the mount. Now i'm still learning my way around in terms of scopes and requirements and such, so any pointers would be appriciated

[smudgeball]

Hi

Do you have a permanent setup outside ?

The reason I ask is that a macbook is a very nice piece of kit.

On Friday I did a horrible juggling act in the dark with my laptop. (even given secondhand value I'd still have been looking at £300 - £400 of upset lying on the grass if I hadn't caught it !!)

I just got hold of a secondhand asus netbook for £45 off ebay.

It's only got a solid state 8Gb hard drive and 512Mb ram, but the way I see it is if I'm only taking a two minute avi off my webcam, it's all I'll really need.

I can plug my 500Gb hardrive in and transfer my work across.

I've heard that asus netbooks are pretty rugged and I won't be as worried about having it outside with me.

Just a suggestion

Neil

[Stephen]

First of all let me state I own a Macbook and love it to bits ... but I wouldn't use it for astro (though I do use it for Photoshop.)

Yes there is some software - but not as wide a choice, nor as supported a choice as Windows software will be on the forums.

[chris285]

Well that kind of answers my question then, as I said i've borrowed my friends 7" EEE and its just too small and not enough power for my liking as chances are i'd use it for other things as well

Thinking an Acer timeline X or similar is a good choice then, 9hr battery and an i-5 chip as well and 13" screen should suit me nicely. Use would probably be 50/50 for astro and other, so if a mac user says not worth it then i'll leave it to one side

[Stephen]

There are a couple of users on here who will tell you I am completely wrong and that you can do everything you need to on a mac The comments above are just my personal opinion.

[assasincz]

I do not know what the others will say but I would suggest going for some cheap second-hand plain black office working laptop, like an old HP Compaq or an old Lenovo Thinkpad. Such notebooks are very, very durable and can handle moisture rather well.

Getting a shiny brand new ultra thin designer's notebook for serious £ might eventually leave you banging your head on the wall, because, lets face it, some them are not as tough, plus you operate with it at night - a lot of bad things might happen to it (you may drop it, knock it over, brake something off it, close something in it etc.). When leaving the laptop open, under the skies, the dew building-up on the keyboard might eventually leak inside and do harm to its electronics or ultimatly destroy it. Purchasing a cheap old indestructible jade would benefit you with usability rather equal to a new laptop, plus, should it burn out, you will not regret it so much.

Naturally, a new laptop gets a warranty. However, if it burns out, some smaller retailers might actually go through the palaver of examining it, and if they find that the electronics were corroded by moisture, they will not accept it, as you would have been clearly violating the instructions on how to use it properly. That will leave you with having it fixed - some of the spare parts for brand new laptops are often so expensive, it is often worth buying a new one again instead. For an outdoorsy use, I would go for a second-hand toiler anytime.

If you drive to your observation site by car, pruchasing a car adapter is advisable, as there would be no need to worry about the battery capacity issue. Plus, I would suggest keeping your notebook cosy inside an open boot - the car roof and boot lid will shelter it nicely from dew.

Any follow-ups?

[MG1]

I love our MacBook too, but I find that for Astro it's just easier to get support for pc issues...sort of gone with the crowd I guess.

[chris285]

if i am going out then yes the car will most likely be close by to it, i do go to my parents a bit as its out in a village which is quite good as well for observing

[x6gas]

You could do worse than look at a cheap Samsung netbook. I use them in the field and plenty powerful enough to run stellarium and whatever capture software I happen to be running... and battery life is 8 hours plus (and that's from my experience, not the oft over-blown marketing specs).

I do, though, have a quad-core desktop that I use for image processing as the netbooks are no way beefy enough for that...

[Gina]

I have a MacBook Pro - it's a real delight and far too good to risk outdoors, even in my observatory. I bought a "refurbished" 10" EEEPC netbook from Morgans to use out there. I also have refurbished office desktops in addition to my main home built desktop. And I agree with getting a second hand refurbished office laptop for use in the dark. They usually have XP on them which has the biggest software base of all OSs and is now quite stable (after umpteen updates).

[fwm891]

I use an iMac for image processing but like others here I have an older IBM laptop that serves for image capture. Transfer everything to memory sticks for the process stages.

Lots more control software EQMOD etc for windows based machines - there is an EQMOD for Mac but its base OS is 10.5 and my older mac laptop is 10.4.11 !

[chris285]

thanks guys, steering back towards a windows pc but not sure if a 10" netbook is big enough for me but as its main use will be for guiding/imaging it may not be an issue

i do have a q6700 quad core desktop which as said i can transfer stuff to, only thing i can see is that most new netbooks come with windows 7 starter and not xp

[Gina]

Get a refurbished netbook from Morgans if they've still got them.

[Stephen]

thanks guys, steering back towards a windows pc but not sure if a 10" netbook is big enough for me but as its main use will be for guiding/imaging it may not be an issue

i do have a q6700 quad core desktop which as said i can transfer stuff to, only thing i can see is that most new netbooks come with windows 7 starter and not xp

Good reason not to buy new

S/H netbook on fleaBay with XP - probably £100 or less ...

[Gina]

Morgans have these :- Buy EEE PC 1001PX 10" 1GB 160GB XP Netbook Notebook White at Morgan Computers

I have the same but in black (they've sold out of black one though).

Features

• Processor: Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz
  
• OS: Geniune Windows XP Home Edition
  
• Display: Anti-glare 10" WSVGA (1024 x 600)
  
• Memory: 1 Gb DDR2
  
• Hard Drive: 160 Gb
  
• Optical Drive: None
  
• Wired Network: 10/100 Ethernet LAN
  
• Wireless Network: WiFi 802.11B/G
  
• Ports: 2 x USB 2.0, VGA, SD/MMC card reader (SDHC), Audio in, Audio out
  
• Audio: Hi-Definition audio CODEC, Built-in stereo speaker, built-in microphone
  
• Camera: 0.3 MP webcam built-in
  
• Battery: 3 cell, upto 4.5 hrs life
  
• Colour: Black
  
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 262 x 178 x 25.9-36.5 mm
  
• Weight: 1.27 Kg
  

[chris285]

Mght look into that after xmas then, not that expensive and will possibly get the webcam myself to go with it when i hand back to my friend

[MG1]

Nothing wrong with win seven...

In some ways it can be more stable than xp.

I run Stellarium, CdC, ASCOM 6, EQmod with ASCOMPad and wireless gamepad, EQtour, PHD, APT, DSS, registax, photoshop CS3 all on a 4yr old m4300 that I've updated with a SSD and win seven pro.

All works fine....still nowhere as stable as my Ubuntu server though. Almost 18months since that went down and it's running a 5disk raid array, media and file serving 24/7.

[chris285]

Just to clarify i meant software compatibility with win 7 starter which all netbooks appear to come with, i know it all works with xp which is what i was getting at but obviously didn't get my point across well enough lol

[MG1]

I can see why it wouldn't work with starter if it works with pro...? Maybe others will know otherwise.

[chris285]

Will all the required software needed for controlling a mount and webcam etc work with windows 7 64bit can anyone confirm?

[philhas]

Ascom drivers are supported on 32 & 64bit Operating systems and the SPC900 works with 64bit Windows 7

[chris285]

excellent thats pretty much what i wanted to know, as tbh i'd rather spend a bit more on a new netbook which has a better spec than a second hand one despite knowing it will get battered about etc

thanks for the advice and should be looking into getting my own stuff next year after i hand my mates stuff back