Laptop for Astrophotography

[Tachyon]

Battery, battery, battery.

I'm in my second 'astro-notebook' now, and trust me, everything else is not as important as batteries. Buy the longer-lasting version battery, and get an extra one. While you can run the notebook off an external battery pack, remember you need to save that for the telescope drive and dew-heaters.

My first notebook (Fujitsu) would allow me to capture only 1hr of avi, even though it is rated at 3 hrs. That's because the webcam draws power also, and a DSI draws even more power (my battery lasts 20 mins only when used with DSI continuously!).

Having learnt my lesson, my 2nd notebook (Dell) has a 9-cell battery and that gives me over 3 hours of imaging time! I also have an extra 9-cell pack on standby in case the night gets interesting.

Remember, if you have enough batter power, you can afford to run a higher speed HD, increase the brightness of the LCD screen (without blinding yourself and others around you, of course), and run a preliminary image stack in the field to determine if the sky permits more imaging, or you should just do visual for the night.

Battery rules!

[jermng]

Yeah, talking bout that, does anyone know what Bluetooth adapters are available in the market? I know the one Orion/StarryNights sells is quite expensive ... are there others?

I like Bluetooth interface because even though there are cables hanging around my mount now (tracking handbox), they are more or less connected within the mount. If I connect a laptop to the mount, it's an "outside" device. I'm afraid the cable might get kicked accidentally etc. Also can lay the laptop in the mat a distance away without hindering movement.

[jermng]

Yeah, talking bout Batteries, I think I'm gonna get an extra 12 cell batt. Coupled with the 6 cell that the notebook originally comes with, I think that should do it.

Anyway, how do I connect the laptop to run on an external power supply or car supply?

[zong]

12cell?! that's omg alot.. but yes the bigger the better, the more the better. Battery is very very important.

2GB of RAM.. overkill. 1GB will do unless you have a better computer. If you have the extra money to spare, buy one better laptop with a built in video card instead of those with "intel integrated graphics accelerator". Vid card will help in your camera processing a lot, and in case you want to play NFS carbon, it should help too. The downside is, additional vid card = more battery guzzling again...

Moral of story? buy big big batteries

[Canopus Lim]

If there is a DC voltage regulator kind of coversion from 12V to the laptop voltage and the proper DC connectors it may be possible to charge the laptop using a 12V (car battery) supply. It would probably last much longer as the 12V batteries can have like 17AH supply (but heavy).

[anat]

If you want to do long exposure astrophotography, the internal battery may not be sufficient. I used to use a 12V car battery + inverter (12V to 220 V) + notebook. Later I gave up the astrophography attempt because I didn't want to carry batteries + notebook + cables We charge batteries in the field using solar cell panels.

Anat

[jermng]

Wah ... using Solar panels?? That's cool!

Anyway, do you guys know what I need to interface my encoders with Cartes Du Ciel either using BlueTooth or cable?

[ariefm71]

what do you guys think about UMPC, worthy a consideration?

[jermng]

OK, I'll bite - What's UMPC??

[ariefm71]

it's a small form factor tablet pc, running a superset version of winxp pro os : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Mobile_PC
cheaper and lighter (the size of ss2k or sphinx goto controller) than current tablet pc.