What laptop to run BYE is necessary?

[pleverington]

I guess most specifically, what screen attributes will allow me the best capabilities to use the program? My old laptop isn't going to cut it and I just need a new laptop for BYE and general use. I won't be doing any serious editing or storage on the thing. Downloading from cards, good screen for focusing in BYE and what not, seem to be my major concerns. Is a 17 inch necessary or  desirable? Or would a  13 do  just fine? I'm thinking a 15.6 for keeping things somewhat  easy

to take everywhere. At home I have  the  mega of all computers at it does everything, but  I  have  just  a tablet for mobile use. Any input is appreciated and  thanks in advance.

 

 

Paul

[astroman133]

The following is from the BYE 3.1 User Manual:

 

The Mandatories:

·Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 or higher

·Microsoft .Net 4.0 (the installer will detect if it is not installed on your computer)

 

The Minimum:

·All items in 'The mandatories'

·Screen resolution of 1024 x 600

·Single CPU

·1GB memory

 

The Recommended:

·All items in 'The mandatories'

·Screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher

·Dual CPU or more

·2GB memory or more

 

 

Notice that the Minimum and Recommended configurations say nothing about screen size.  Screen resolution is much more important because the software typically sizes windows, dialogs, and forms in units of pixels.

 

 

[pleverington]

Thanks Astroman. From your own experience are larger screens going to help much over the small ones? What about these 4K ultra HD screens for example 3840X2160 on a 15.6 screen?

 

 

Paul

[admin]

 

 

Thanks Astroman. From your own experience are larger screens going to help much over the small ones? What about these 4K ultra HD screens for example 3840X2160 on a 15.6 screen?


Paul

A -bigger- screen is not necessary for BYE since it is only for image acquisition.

I have a Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 with a 3200 x 1800 resolution.  It is nice, very nice and everything is sharp, really sharp.  But to run BYE it makes no difference, but to look at your final processed image, wow!

All this to say do not spend on a 4k monitor just to run BYE because BYE does not make any use of the higher resolution as it is not its focus.

Hope this helps,

[s3igell]

Lets add a few more requirements to Astroman's list:

 

Mandatory:

2-3 USB2 Ports (true USB2 since numerous Astronomy gadgets require USB and are not well-compatible with USB3; true Master ports not Slave port as on iPad)

64-bit OS (Win7 or Win8.1; OSX or Linux have much smaller support of AP Drivers and Apps)

Rubylith/Red Screen Cover (preserve your night-adapted vision and your friendships)

 

Suggested:

Significant Battery Life (6-8hrs at nominal CPU/Memory/Screen usage; 4hrs minimum)

Substantial HDD Capacity - or preferably a 256-512GB SSD (SSD contributes to Battery Life)

Decent amount of RAM - 4-8GB (acknowledge that AP Imaging Sessions will involve multiple Apps; BYE/BYN, PHD2, Planetarium, ASCOM, AstroTortilla, etc)

Ethernet Port (Remote Control from House; some CCD Cameras and Mounts are Ethernet)

USB3/ESATA/Firewire Port (External Stroage Connectivity at High Speeds)

Numeric Keypad with dedicated Arrow/Home/PgUp/PgDown/End Keys

Illuminated Keyboard (RED - not Blue or other Color)

As few and as dim LEDs for Power and Indicators - RED Motif if at all possible

[pleverington]

Thank you Guylain. I think the only thing left that I'm looking at now is how much such a beautiful screen as you have will help in selling images whether they be my nature stuff or soon to be astronomy work. I make prints and very large ones at that, and have sold quite a few Hubble images printed 40 inch and larger. But seeing what a lot of you experienced amateurs are doing, and I really wouldn't classify any of you as amateurs, I like the "landscape" look to them, even the ones that are all space shots which include a lot more territory. These I believe would sell and maybe one of these eyepopping screens would help in that regard. If so, it's worth the money spent, it's worth the weight. Hopefully batteries last pretty good powering such beauties. But anyone have thoughts and feedback on using such screens on their laptops as far as for selling is concerned?

 

 

Paul

[pleverington]

Lets add a few more requirements to Astroman's list:

 

Mandatory:

2-3 USB2 Ports (true USB2 since numerous Astronomy gadgets require USB and are not well-compatible with USB3; true Master ports not Slave port as on iPad)

64-bit OS (Win7 or Win8.1; OSX or Linux have much smaller support of AP Drivers and Apps)

Rubylith/Red Screen Cover (preserve your night-adapted vision and your friendships)

 

Suggested:

Significant Battery Life (6-8hrs at nominal CPU/Memory/Screen usage; 4hrs minimum)

Substantial HDD Capacity - or preferably a 256-512GB SSD (SSD contributes to Battery Life)

Decent amount of RAM - 4-8GB (acknowledge that AP Imaging Sessions will involve multiple Apps; BYE/BYN, PHD2, Planetarium, ASCOM, AstroTortilla, etc)

Ethernet Port (Remote Control from House; some CCD Cameras and Mounts are Ethernet)

USB3/ESATA/Firewire Port (External Stroage Connectivity at High Speeds)

Numeric Keypad with dedicated Arrow/Home/PgUp/PgDown/End Keys

Illuminated Keyboard (RED - not Blue or other Color)

As few and as dim LEDs for Power and Indicators - RED Motif if at all possible

 

 

Thanks s3igell. I was exactly wondering about battery strength. I guess one could do some external battery but that's one more thing. The dark sky park area here near Cleveland is all set up with external AC power at every station and I suppose at least for a while I will be cuttin some teeth there. But I sure can envision the off beat locations being the norm for me based on how I have been doing my nature stuff in the past. So I'm guessing these 4k or super hd screens use a lot of battery? 

 

The rubylith screen cover sounds like an absolute must...thanks for that heads up. How do I find a red backlit keyboard or can one select color or change the color via a filter?.

 

 

Paul

[s3igell]

From your own experience are larger screens going to help much over the small ones? What about these 4K ultra HD screens for example 3840X2160 on a 15.6 screen?

 

High Resolutions (1600-1920 Horizontal; 800-1200 Vertical) are a benefit for an Image Session Management Laptop, as you WILL have multiple Apps running - and even overlapped windows need some amount of screen space.

 

Ultra-High Resolutions are not of much benefit, and often carry a significant Power Usage penalty, for a Laptop intended to be used in the field.  These UHD are much more useful connected to your Image Processing Workstation, where you can maximize PixInsight/Nebulosity/MaximDL and/or PhotoShop CS while you are working at Pixel-Peeping levels.

 

Trying to use a single Laptop as both the Image Capture and Image Processing platforms is a compromise in which you usually lose on both fronts.  The requirements for longevity in the field don't lead to fast Image Processing (and vice versa).

 

The Image Processing Workstation is where you'll want the higher-end i5/i7 CPU and 8-16GB Fast RAM and Large/Fast RAID HDD/SDD.

[astroman133]

I use the same computer for image capture and processing. It is a laptop with quad-core i7, a 1TB SSD in place of the original hard drive, and a 17" display. Power is never an issue. I power it with A/C when possible or with a high capacity deep cycle 12V battery, as necessary. The display is large enough for me to see PHD's main and graph displays and the image capture display both at the same time.  I use BYE for DSLR image capture and ImagesPlus for CCD Image capture.

 

One issue with that laptop is that the built-in display is not really suitable for image processing because has a very narrow viewing angle.  To get around this I use a external monitor 27" monitor when doing post-processing. However, this monitor does not go on the road to star parties.

 

I hope this helps.

 

 

[pleverington]

From your own experience are larger screens going to help much over the small ones? What about these 4K ultra HD screens for example 3840X2160 on a 15.6 screen?

 

High Resolutions (1600-1920 Horizontal; 800-1200 Vertical) are a benefit for an Image Session Management Laptop, as you WILL have multiple Apps running - and even overlapped windows need some amount of screen space.

 

Ultra-High Resolutions are not of much benefit, and often carry a significant Power Usage penalty, for a Laptop intended to be used in the field.  These UHD are much more useful connected to your Image Processing Workstation, where you can maximize PixInsight/Nebulosity/MaximDL and/or PhotoShop CS while you are working at Pixel-Peeping levels.

 

Trying to use a single Laptop as both the Image Capture and Image Processing platforms is a compromise in which you usually lose on both fronts.  The requirements for longevity in the field don't lead to fast Image Processing (and vice versa).

 

The Image Processing Workstation is where you'll want the higher-end i5/i7 CPU and 8-16GB Fast RAM and Large/Fast RAID HDD/SDD.

   

 

 

Thanks s3igell....I was just coming to the conclusion that you outlined, that being, forget trying to make both feet fit in the same shoe. No way is a viewing computer going to have that battery strength in the field. On top of that I think for now let the HD technology blossom more and the prices get heavily dropped via consumer gravity.

 

 I also am seeing the benefit with a lower capacity, but power sipping SSD drive. Still like a 15 inch screen though. I never would have thought about dedicated USB2's being a factor. Thanks for that insight too.

 

Well I guess I should just come out and ask what computer folks with the experience in astro photography would recommend that has great battery strength longevity, SSD storage, 8 plus ram, beautiful screen better than or at least equal to 1024X768 15 inch screen, USB 2 and 3, multiple core CPU, light in weight, red illuminated keypad, cost as least as necessary, and rugged,  all to have as it's main function in life to be used for astro-photography work in the field? Maybe just astronomy too down the road.

 

 

Paul