AstroArt 5.0 vs APT + CdC + PHD + Astrotortilla

[wuthton]

I've recently been testing AstroArt 5 after a very long period with the commonly used APT and friends. I thought it may be helpful to others to share my thoughts/opinions.

For those that don't know AstroArt 5 is a full package of software for image capture, guiding, plate solving and pre-processing for a price of £130-ish.

Here's my compare and contrast:

User Interface

APT wins hands down on this one, AA5 is best described as.... dispersed. I'd like to say it is my familiarity with APT but it isn't, APT's layout is far more user friendly.

​Star Chart/Planetarium

CdC is far easier to use visually than the GSC star charts provided with AA5 for target selection and slewing. If you think CdC is visually basic compared to Stellarium you ain't seen nothin'.

Auto-focus

AA5 is far superior in this regard, I cannot beat the precision manually. Auto-focus is very new (beta) to APT so I'm sure this will soon be on a par with AA5.

Plate Solving

AA5 is way, way.... way superior to Astrotortilla (Freeware, zero cost, no complaints there). AA5 will solve and slew in sub 5 seconds.

Guiding

This is a draw. I'd say AA5 is slightly easier to tweak than PHD but I've found zero difference in my ultimate guiding performance.

Image Capture

We're back to the user interface here, APT is superior in every way. Saved sequences, time displayed to meridian flip, automatically writing target/filters to file name... it's all easier with APT.

Conclusion

At the moment I'll probably stick with AA5, purely for the auto-focus and plate solving but I will seriously miss APT's image capture interface.