netbook laptop

[scopekid1325]

Hi imaging planets can I get away with using a netbook as a cheaper option to laptop colin

[emadmoussa]

Yes you can - most of the astronomical software don't require high speed processors. But bear in mind you might need a bit of disk space if you want to record avi videos and then stack them.

As for DSOs imaging - the image processing following a long exposure will be better off with a medium to high speed laptop. Slow netbooks/laptops will suffer briefly in such a case.

[ronin]

On the assumption that you are posting from a desktop the "answer" would be a reasonable netbook with webcam attached, get the .avi then transfer this to a usb stick and put on the desktop for processing.

Once on the desktop you can erase from the netbook ready for the next .avi file capture.

Just remember to erase the "old" .avi's as otherwise it will fill up and that perfect capture will run out of memory.

There are a few places selling used netbooks so may be worthwhile seeong if there is one near you.

[scopekid1325]

Hi thanks for your comments

Is it possible to use an external hard drive with a netbook and then directly run the captures straight to the hardrive colin

[Oddsocks]

It is possible but the data transfer rate to an external USB drive is often too low so you will be limited in either the maximum F.P.S. or the maximum scene time that can be used with the camera.

(This depends how much free RAM can be used as a capture buffer when setting up the capture program)

For my i3 laptop and a ZWO ASI 120 camera I can capture at fifteen frames a second on full resolution until I fill up the internal hard drive which would take a couple of hours but writing to an external USB drive I would be limited to either fifteen frames a second for about a minute and then the frame buffer would be full or ~five frames a second without restriction until the external hard drive was full

My guess is that a netbook would be even more restricted than that so to get the maximum frame rate and maximum scene length possible you have to write to the internal hard drive.

You can transfer any capture files to an external drive during an observing session to free up internal space but not during live capture, there would not be enough oomph in the processor to do both tasks at once.

William.

[scopekid1325]

nice one so just keep on hand and sort it after a few captures yep thanx

[Gib007]

I use an Acer Aspire One D270 netbook for everything (Deep Space imaging is what I do, but I've also done some Planetary Imaging). I would prefer a slightly larger screen (maybe 13") with a higher resolution but overall it's excellent. Best of all is the 9.5 hour battery life I get with the standard battery. Then there's my extra capacity battery that yields 15 hours battery life on its own...