ASIAIR Pro vs PHD2 for guiding

[Astro Waves]

Hiya,

Just wandering if anyone has any info on the differences between the quality of guiding on the things mentioned in the title, I'm looking at getting into guiding but wanted to make sure I was going down the right road. Wasn't sure if it would be better to invest in a dedicated astro laptop to use when shooting or just use a tablet or phone for out in the field when shooting but then just edit on laptop at home. Any info would be very helpful, fanks.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I can't say for sure as I have not used an ASIair pro but use an RPI loaded with KStars and EKOS which allows you to use PHD2 or the EKOS internal guider and I find both work just as well but because I have always used PHD2 tend to use PHD2.

I assume the ASIair will use similar guiding to the KStars so my guess is that either PHD2 or the ASIair will bot work equally well although that is best confirmed by one of the many users on SGL.

One of the main issues for me in the field is how to power the laptop if using one as they are quite power hungry unless on short sessions less than 3 hours as that is as long as most batteries will last and probably longer than most that are not brand new.

And really no need to go mad on for in in field laptop or tablet as a RPi does all I need. For processing then that's different and that does work better with a good spec computer.

I guess one advantage of the ASIair is it runs on 12V but I think is still essentially an RPI inside. The disadvantage is it really limits you to using ZWO cameras and equipment (I think from what I read on other threads, although I think can run DSLR cameras as well)

I do like using the RPI with Stellarmate, or Astroberry installed, it is relatively cheap and runs all my equipment all night automatically and I just need a laptop, tablet or even smartphone to set it all going, so no need to run the laptop all night as I can put it to sleep (or turn it off) once the session us up and running. The small issue is the RPi needs 5V at at least 3A but there are ways of getting this from a 12V source so you might consider this option as well.

Steve

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[mike1485]

Hi - I am a complete newbie to this hobby but ... I am using an ASIAIR Pro and have used the guiding facility.  I understand that it basically uses PHD2 software under the bonnet but does not expose all of the parameters to the user.  I have found it works well - I'm sure if you're a real control freak that you would pine for all the flexibilities that the full PHD2 gives, but for me, at this stage of my learning curve, the ASIAIR is great.  If you download the manual for the ASIAIR from the ZWO website you can check out the guiding section - the manual is very superficial but will give you an idea of what is available.  You can dither (mentioned in the guide camera section of the manual rather than the guiding section).

[david_taurus83]

I use Stellarmate (RPi4 with SM OS) for my mobile setup and it has the proper version of PHD2 on there. Runs off a 5v USB power bank for hours and controls platesolving and capture. Can control everything over VNC on my phone. The SM uses its own WIFI network, you just connect to it. Much cheaper than the Air and more versatile but a bit clunky to use for a beginner. 

If you've got a ZWO guiding and imaging camera then the Air and the accompanying app are probably easier to use though. Its very popular for this reason.

[michael8554]

From what I've seen from posts on this subject, and looking at the GuideLogs, if you're lucky ASIAir works as well as PHD2.

If you're not lucky, the PHD2 guide settings not included in ASIAir may be the problem, plus missing information in the ASIAir version of the GuideLog makes diagnosis more difficult.

Michael

 

[saac]

Im assuming that you could run PHD2 while using ASIAir for  frame capture , focusing  ?

Jim