Setting up Ekos with Windows PC?

[kmaslin]

Have been looking at Kstars as alternative to current setup of CDC and SGP, but would only work if the hardware setup via Ekos works? However it looks like Ekos only runs outside Windows using Linux etc. Can anyone put in layman's terms if I can run on current Windows PC or do I need to set up a VM/Raspberry pi controller to make this work?

[AstroRookie]

Hello Kmaslin,

why would you leave windows for Ekos? There's plenty of excellent free software on windows for astrophotography. Even Dylan O'Donnell, who is a die hard mac user admits that the best astrophotography software runs on windows.

If you really want to give it a try, then I would advise you to setup a linux VM on your windows computer and install Ubuntu on it, then install indi, kstars and ekos. I'm a mac user, but as I don't want my macbook to be outside in humid conditions, I switched to Raspberry Pi with astroberry.

Kind regards,

AstroRookie

[Paul M]

As above, but a bit different. Astroberry and I didn't get on with each other. So now I have a mini PC for at the mount with Ubuntu (20.10) and run KStars/Ekos, PHD2, ASTAP and a few other utils. I recently put Stellarium on it too because KStars is a pants planetarium but Ekos won't talk to Stellarium (It will talk to SkySafari but that doesn't run on Linux...). I use RealVNC to control it all either by WiFi and a tablet at the mount or Ethernet to my Windows Lappy indoors. 

It's been a dreadful few months weatherwise and I've hardly even tested it fully. But any trouble and I'll put Windows on the Mini and revert to APT, which I actually prefer for user friendlyness. Ekos is too configurable for my needs presently but as I progress...

It seems that there is something of a frenzy over N.I.N.A. as a full bodied imaging suite for Windows. Might be worth looking at?

Anyway, "Hey Google, set up my telescope"

[Kryptic]

Also Pi and Astroberry

[KP82]

Pi with Astroberry if you'd like to try out ekos with a readily available solution. Or you could manually set up pi + ubuntu mate + indi + kstar + ekos.

Personally I image with a canon DSLR and quite like BackyardEOS which is Windows only. So I use a win10 mini-pc with RDP for that.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

On 12/11/2020 at 21:30, Paul M said:

As above, but a bit different. Astroberry and I didn't get on with each other. So now I have a mini PC for at the mount with Ubuntu (20.10) and run KStars/Ekos, PHD2, ASTAP and a few other utils. I recently put Stellarium on it too because KStars is a pants planetarium but Ekos won't talk to Stellarium (It will talk to SkySafari but that doesn't run on Linux...). I use RealVNC to control it all either by WiFi and a tablet at the mount or Ethernet to my Windows Lappy indoors. 

It's been a dreadful few months weatherwise and I've hardly even tested it fully. But any trouble and I'll put Windows on the Mini and revert to APT, which I actually prefer for user friendlyness. Ekos is too configurable for my needs presently but as I progress...

It seems that there is something of a frenzy over N.I.N.A. as a full bodied imaging suite for Windows. Might be worth looking at?

Anyway, "Hey Google, set up my telescope"

Just seen this, and I know exactly what you mean about KStars planetarium. If only I could use Stellarium with EKOS I would be over the moon (well very happy anyway) 🙂 

Steve

[kens]

Stellarium does allow control of the telescope via INDI using the Telescope Control plug-in. So you can install Stellarium on whichever platform you like and run it alongside Kstars/Ekos. Just like you can with PHD2.