Asiair and planetary.

[bosun21]

I intend to dip my toes into planetary and EAA. Can I use the asiair for the video and captures then once back indoors download onto my laptop for processing? Also what is the effective range of the asiair WiFi in practice? I have been looking at the Asi Studio or would i be better with Sharpcap? Sorry for all the questions. This is a new world to me.

[knobby]

I don't have an AsiAir but have seen YouTube videos of it being used for planetary so it must be doable 🤞🏻

[WolfieGlos]

I don’t have an Air, but for the two times I’ve tried planetary so far, I used ASIstudio and it worked fine. Not sure if there’s any benefit to the other software though. 

[Elp]

That's how I'd assume it works, note the pro and plus have usb 3 ports so likely provide better bandwidth via them, the mini is usb 2 only but is the one I prefer to use as it has the best WiFi range out the lot of them. The plus is quite dire in comparison and its supposed to be the "premium" version, but note the mini is actually the newest version (unless if they've released a revised plus). The pros WiFi is pretty much non existent so I wouldn't get one if WiFi is a priority, it's dire even with a WiFi extender plugged into it. The gen1 (first version) doesn't have two of the modes (plan and video) due to the aged hardware.

I usually use my rpi with Astroberry and Firecapture or OAcapture mainly because I can capture images (raw uncompressed) but using this means I need a laptop which kind of defeats the purpose, and it crashes a lot. Been meaning to use the airs for planetary and try for Saturn but it's been more than 7 weeks now rubbish weather so it'll have to wait.

[bosun21]

10 minutes ago, Elp said:

That's how I'd assume it works, note the pro and plus have usb 3 ports so likely provide better bandwidth via them, the mini is usb 2 only but is the one I prefer to use as it has the best WiFi range out the lot of them. The plus is quite dire in comparison and its supposed to be the "premium" version, but note the mini is actually the newest version (unless if they've released a revised plus). The pros WiFi is pretty much non existent so I wouldn't get one if WiFi is a priority, it's dire even with a WiFi extender plugged into it. The gen1 (first version) doesn't have two of the modes (plan and video) due to the aged hardware.

I usually use my rpi with Astroberry and Firecapture or OAcapture mainly because I can capture images (raw uncompressed) but using this means I need a laptop which kind of defeats the purpose, and it crashes a lot. Been meaning to use the airs for planetary and try for Saturn but it's been more than 7 weeks now rubbish weather so it'll have to wait.

I was looking at the mini but was put off with it only having USB2 ports. If in the future i decided to do a bit of AP then I reckoned the USB3 would be better. There's also a new (I think) plus 256GB version out which is supposed to have good WiFi range but they always say that don't they. What if I ran a good quality Ethernet cable from the asiair to the laptop? This dipping of the toes is proving expensive but I'm determined to give it a serious go.

[Elp]

Ethernet cable will work fine though I've never used it like this and believe it's for file transfer only and not control but I could be wrong (note mini doesn't have ethernet socket). What's your working distance, I did improve the plus by taking the aerial off, adding in a 1M sma extension cable then screwing the same aerial onto the end of it, this way the aerial is left dangling away from the OTA, the strength of signal improved enough for me to get a bit patchy reception from upstairs but enough to see what it's doing. From say the kitchen window (it has issues going through brick) the reception was fine (setup around 6-8M away from the window).

Edited October 19, 2023 by Elp

[bosun21]

I think I'll just use it with my tablet then download the images when back indoors which is about 10m. I'll look into the Ethernet cable for control as I thought the USBC was for the downloads.

[bosun21]

9 hours ago, Elp said:

Ethernet cable will work fine though I've never used it like this and believe it's for file transfer only and not control but I could be wrong (note mini doesn't have ethernet socket). What's your working distance, I did improve the plus by taking the aerial off, adding in a 1M sma extension cable then screwing the same aerial onto the end of it, this way the aerial is left dangling away from the OTA, the strength of signal improved enough for me to get a bit patchy reception from upstairs but enough to see what it's doing. From say the kitchen window (it has issues going through brick) the reception was fine (setup around 6-8M away from the window).

Can the camera (585MC) be run okay from a USB2 port on the mini? Thanks.

[Elp]

I've just tested the video feature on the mini with my 485MC, using avi (raw) capture the avi FPS stated at the bottom of the screen was as follows:

Resolution 1080p (highest you can set) = 13fps

Resolution 240p (lowest you can set) = 90fps

Without actually doing a planetary run I can't confirm actuals as autostakkert will tell you how many frames were captured when processing.

Edit: just tried the plus with usb3 port, similar FPS readout.

When doing planetary I've never got the advertised FPS spec touted by the manufacturers, smaller ROIs help the FPS as demonstrated above and I believe PC usb connections can achieve higher FPS, the speed of the data storage can have an effect.

Edited October 20, 2023 by Elp

[bosun21]

11 minutes ago, Elp said:

I've just tested the video feature on the mini with my 485MC, using avi (raw) capture the avi FPS stated at the bottom of the screen was as follows:

Resolution 1080p (highest you can set) = 13fps

Resolution 240p (lowest you can set) = 90fps

Without actually doing a planetary run I can't confirm actuals as autostakkert will tell you how many frames were captured when processing.

Edit: just tried the plus with usb3 port, similar FPS readout.

When doing planetary I've never got the advertised FPS spec touted by the manufacturers, smaller ROIs help the FPS as demonstrated above and I believe PC usb connections can achieve higher FPS, the speed of the data storage can have an effect.

Thanks for that. I may just download Sharpcap and Stellarium and run them via ASCOM using the USB port on my mount. I can use All sky with Sharpcap for plate solving. Thoughts?

[Elp]

If you like using a laptop/computer as part of your setup. I made the decision to be completely independent of a computer for acquisition so the airs were the route I took, makes it easier if you decide to go off site as you just pick up the bag containing the equipment and go, no need to think about anything. I assume you've already got a computer at hand so no harm in trying it first.