Willi replied to the topic 'Skysafari 7 with stellarmate' in the forum. 1 year ago

Hi Fred,

My mount controller and the ASIAIR are both based on RPi 4B’s. Just as you said, their WiFi connectivity is very unreliable if you are more then 3m/10ft away. My solution was then similar to yours: I have a WiFi-6 mesh at home and put one of the satellites next to the mount and connect both devices with ethernet cables to the mesh satellite. This is a super fast connection anywhere in the house :-)

I do not use much of AP planning nor mosaicking just yet. I got into AP during the pandemic because of much less traveling. Never regretted it.

I found the KStars/EKOS planner far from being straight forward, while manageable. So I use the simple planner in the ASIAIR, which is good enough for me for now. I am beta tester for the ASIAIR version 2 app, which runs perfectly well on the M1 Macbook.

TheSky is very expensive… not sure if it is worth it. I haven’t used Starry Night in maybe 15 years, since I am super happy with SkySafari 6 and 7. The planner in SkySafari is not adapted to AP… So for now I am OK with the ASIAIR.

The only problem I have now is the limited compatibility between the ASIAIR and the StarGO2 Pro controller. Guiding is not supported in this interface, while GoTo and plate solving is. So I need to run either the PHD2 or the EKOS guider separately. For now I prefer PHD2… again, i found it more intuitiv than EKOS. Technically, I could do everything with the StarGO2 controller and EKOS on either the RPi or on my Mac… but I do not like the GUI and the ASIAIR is easier to use.

There are so many settings and options in EKOS, that I find it counter productive for just a simple AP session. I find myself trying out all the options and settings forever until it kind of works the way I want to. ASIAIR and PHD2 are much more intuitiv and straight forward. The PAA in EKOS, however, is constantly improving and a great help.

There are also a lot of people who love N.I.N.A., which is also freeware. NINA seems very good, but does not support INDI, as far as I know. ASCOM works, though. Matter of taste.

Yes, all these options and tools keep us busy. It‘s still a lot of fun and the images are great!

Willi

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