What should I be looking for in a used laptop for scope control. I will also try my hand at CCD at a later time. What brand, processor size, etc.
Laptop question
Started by jmontgomery, 02/26/2003 02:08AM
Posted 02/26/2003 02:08AM
Opening Post
Posted 02/26/2003 06:27AM
#1
Depending on your telescope and whatever CCD setup you choose, a serial port, a parallel port, a USB port and a PS/2 port are good ideas. You may not use all of them. Fortunately, most notebooks come with them all, but double check.
As for the components, probably anything from within the past 5 years would be about as good as anything else depending on what else you want to use the laptop for in addition to the aforementioned.
Brand? I've tried IBM, Acer, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Sony and I own an IBM... Too bad you can't custom build your own notebook like you can a desktop!
As for the components, probably anything from within the past 5 years would be about as good as anything else depending on what else you want to use the laptop for in addition to the aforementioned.
Brand? I've tried IBM, Acer, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Sony and I own an IBM... Too bad you can't custom build your own notebook like you can a desktop!
Posted 02/26/2003 01:50PM
#2
Jeff,
Telescope control and guiding do not take much. $200 will set you up fine with a used one. SOmething with a Pentium 150 or better. Small screen is no problem. USB, CD, etc would be good to have.
If you plan to process your images with the same computer, however, you may want to get more computer just in the interest of time and frustration. However, processing is best left to home computers on rainy nights.
Alex
Telescope control and guiding do not take much. $200 will set you up fine with a used one. SOmething with a Pentium 150 or better. Small screen is no problem. USB, CD, etc would be good to have.
If you plan to process your images with the same computer, however, you may want to get more computer just in the interest of time and frustration. However, processing is best left to home computers on rainy nights.
Alex
Posted 02/26/2003 09:16PM
#3
Actually Jeff, older laptops have the advantage over the new Pentium 4/Athalon-class machines for telescope control, since the new laptops seem to have abandoned including an RS232C serial port in favor of USB ports exclusively. Your scope interface will probably be through a serial port. There are USB to serial adapters, but that's an extra piece of hardware, and I've heard that some of them have timing issues when used with planetarium programs and don't accurate track the scope's position or send it data at the appropriate rate. At the same time, you'll possibly/probably want at least one USB port to keep you CCD options open. Most "middle aged" laptops (Pentium II's or III's) had both a serial and a USB port, so you ought to be fine with an Ebay or other second-hand machine.
"How much" processing power is adequate depends largely on the software you will use. I've used some planetarium programs like Earth Centered Universe that run quickly will on an old Pentium II/266 mhz machine, and others like "Cartes du Ciel" that want something faster than a gigahertz of horsepower if you aren't going to wait 10 seconds for each screen update. I've heard that The Sky is another computationally quick one.
Jim
"How much" processing power is adequate depends largely on the software you will use. I've used some planetarium programs like Earth Centered Universe that run quickly will on an old Pentium II/266 mhz machine, and others like "Cartes du Ciel" that want something faster than a gigahertz of horsepower if you aren't going to wait 10 seconds for each screen update. I've heard that The Sky is another computationally quick one.
Jim
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