29 replies to this topic

[Craig Smith]

I have a Seestar S50 on order that I would like to use for EAA.  (I know it's not ideal.)  I would prefer a larger screen for controlling/viewing; is the base iPad sufficient?  It finally comes with 128GB RAM.

 

Seems like Android tablets are more popular but I was "forced" into the Apple realm by my kids.  I assume I don't need GPS for the Seestar.  I do hope to get a discrete AP setup someday though, so not sure if it would be useful for other situations, but don't want to pay monthly fees for something I don't really need.  Would 8-9MP images require a faster processor?

Edited by Craig Smith, 15 June 2025 - 05:10 PM.

[astrokeith]

The iPad will be fine. Good luck!

[Keith Rivich]

Au contraire! I SeeStar is great for EAA. Not ideal for all objects, but what really is? I use an older IPad with mine and it works great.

 

Here is a shot of NGC 4565 taken from TSP:

 

 

 

 

[Don W]

iPod here too.

[rkaufmann87]

I have a Seestar S50 on order that I would like to use for EAA.  (I know it's not ideal.)  I would prefer a larger screen for controlling/viewing; is the base iPad sufficient?  It finally comes with 128GB RAM.

 

Seems like Android tablets are more popular but I was "forced" into the Apple realm by my kids.  I assume I don't need GPS for the Seestar.  I do hope to get a discrete AP setup someday though, so not sure if it would be useful for other situations, but don't want to pay monthly fees for something I don't really need.  Would 8-9MP images require a faster processor?

I use the M2 based iPad Air with 256GB of storage which works extremely well and is quite fast. If you can afford to get 256GB of storage it's a wise investment especially if you intend to use the device for more than EAA. Personally I use my iPad as a laptop replacement so when I travel I use it to do some spreadsheets, writing, calendaring, web surfing etc. Because it's an M based iPad I can use it for Apple's AI intelligence which comes in very handy for photo editing as well as many other things. 

 

So before you pull the trigger fully assess your needs and then forward. 

 

Edited by rkaufmann87, 15 June 2025 - 06:19 PM.

[Overtime]

I am an android tablet user. I have 2. One was around $50.00 after I liked it I bought a better one.  About $70.00. First one I bought from New Egg. Second one I bought from AliExpress.

Edited by Overtime, 15 June 2025 - 06:39 PM.

[Airship]

I bought an iPad mini specifically for my Seestar. Works great!

[Craig Smith]

Thanks everyone!

 

I use the M2 based iPad Air with 256GB of storage which works extremely well and is quite fast. If you can afford to get 256GB of storage it's a wise investment especially if you intend to use the device for more than EAA. Personally I use my iPad as a laptop replacement so when I travel I use it to do some spreadsheets, writing, calendaring, web surfing etc. Because it's an M based iPad I can use it for Apple's AI intelligence which comes in very handy for photo editing as well as many other things. 

 

So before you pull the trigger fully assess your needs and then forward. 

 

I was thinking maybe more storage, but have 256GB on my phone and only use half of it and have a lot of pictures.  But duh, I forgot I will be stacking a bunch of files for each object!  So I will get more storage.

 

An upgrade to the M chip is probably worth it, but suddenly I'm spending almost double what I had planned, so need to think about that more.

[rkaufmann87]

Thanks everyone!

 

I was thinking maybe more storage, but have 256GB on my phone and only use half of it and have a lot of pictures.  But duh, I forgot I will be stacking a bunch of files for each object!  So I will get more storage.

 

An upgrade to the M chip is probably worth it, but suddenly I'm spending almost double what I had planned, so need to think about that more.

Yup iPads are more expensive than Android no doubt about it, however there are frequent sales on the  iPad. For example Amazon has the 256GB 11" iPad Air for $599 right now. Not cheap but as mentioned it's a real  powerhouse too.

[CraigR]

Thanks everyone!

 

I was thinking maybe more storage, but have 256GB on my phone and only use half of it and have a lot of pictures.  But duh, I forgot I will be stacking a bunch of files for each object!  So I will get more storage.

 

An upgrade to the M chip is probably worth it, but suddenly I'm spending almost double what I had planned, so need to think about that more.

Stacking takes place on the Seestar, not on your iPad, and if you're not going to save the individual frames, each image is going to be about 1 MB. If you save each frame, they're about 4MB each.

 

 

I assume I don't need GPS for the Seestar.  I do hope to get a discrete AP setup someday though, so not sure if it would be useful for other situations, but don't want to pay monthly fees for something I don't really need.  Would 8-9MP images require a faster processor?

I thought all iPads have GPS these days. The Seestar needs to know its location, and it gets it from your iPad. If you don't have GPS, your iPad will use your WiFi connection to figure out where you are. If that fails, it will use your ISP's location which could be crazy far away.

 

You can build a custom AP rig from components with a ZWO ASIAIR as the controller. The software will run on your iPad and will be very familiar once you're used to the Seestar software. If you're thinking long-term uses for this iPad, I wouldn't skimp on it. They get obsolete quickly enough without you buying one today that just gets you by then wanting it to do more in 2-4 years. 

 

Even if you were to save all your subframes so that you can stack frames over multiple nights, none of that happens on your iPad. In fact you can set up a shooting plan on your iPad, get it started, then turn off the iPad and go to bed. The Seestar will shoot while you sleep. Then wake up in the morning and check the results by reconnecting your iPad. So the performance of the iPad doesn't matter. You're only using it to view images, not process them or actively drive the Seestar. And the images from an S50 aren't that large. 1080x1960 is the normal size; 2160x3920 at the full mosaic size.
 

[Craig Smith]

Yup iPads are more expensive than Android no doubt about it, however there are frequent sales on the  iPad. For example Amazon has the 256GB 11" iPad Air for $599 right now. Not cheap but as mentioned it's a real  powerhouse too.

Thanks, yeah, I saw that sale.  First I thought it was just a Costco sale and then I saw it everywhere.  Costco says it ends today so I need to get on it.

[Craig Smith]

Stacking takes place on the Seestar, not on your iPad, and if you're not going to save the individual frames, each image is going to be about 1 MB. If you save each frame, they're about 4MB each.

 

 

I thought all iPads have GPS these days. The Seestar needs to know its location, and it gets it from your iPad. If you don't have GPS, your iPad will use your WiFi connection to figure out where you are. If that fails, it will use your ISP's location which could be crazy far away.

 

You can build a custom AP rig from components with a ZWO ASIAIR as the controller. The software will run on your iPad and will be very familiar once you're used to the Seestar software. If you're thinking long-term uses for this iPad, I wouldn't skimp on it. They get obsolete quickly enough without you buying one today that just gets you by then wanting it to do more in 2-4 years. 

 

Even if you were to save all your subframes so that you can stack frames over multiple nights, none of that happens on your iPad. In fact you can set up a shooting plan on your iPad, get it started, then turn off the iPad and go to bed. The Seestar will shoot while you sleep. Then wake up in the morning and check the results by reconnecting your iPad. So the performance of the iPad doesn't matter. You're only using it to view images, not process them or actively drive the Seestar. And the images from an S50 aren't that large. 1080x1960 is the normal size; 2160x3920 at the full mosaic size.
 

Thanks.  I think the iPad Air is worth it especially at the current sale, which narrows the gap.  It also has USB 3 for what it's worth.  I was initially going to build a custom rig and just connect my PC directly to the camera, but the cheapest decent option would be $2k more, so I decided this would be a better learning route.  The ASIAIR and an iPad would be another $1k on top of that but more convenient; my laptop is a heavy power hungry gaming device.  I guess there is a 3rd party app for connecting a PC to the Seestar although it seems like it's finicky netting it set up right.

 

True, the resolution is small on the Seestar which is one reason I had avoided it, but it's certainly sufficient for EAA.  But I will still get at least 256GB.  It seems some people like to download all the frames to process in another app, although I was mainly thinking long term about stacking with a custom rig.  But now that I think about it, I remember reading last year that there weren't any iPad apps for processing, which surprised me.

 

No, only cellular iPads have GPS, which is frustrating.  That's one reason I didn't get one a couple years ago when I had a Celestron Evolution.  That version would be $750 plus monthly fees.

 

So this presents a dilemma.  Maybe an Android is a better option, it seems some of those have GPS without cell but I need to check.

 

I see MacBooks are on sale too, a comparably equipped model with 256GB storage and the M4 chip is $850.  Can you connect that to a Seestar, but have the MacBook get its location from my phone?  Not sure if that version is enough to run any stacking software down the road; I guess SharpCap would have to run under a windows emulator.

 

Ugh.

Edited by Craig Smith, 16 June 2025 - 11:54 AM.

[AhBok]

I use an older iPad and storage isn’t really an issue. The ov”overhead for the SeeStar app is small. I want to stack/process individual subs, I download them directly to my PC where storage matters a lot (NINA uses a good bit for processing.)

[Craig Smith]

Thanks everyone.  I think I'm going to bag Apple and just get a Android tablet for this.  Although I get a good price on my per line fee, it will still add up to about $200/yr, plus the price of the the iPad is more, plus it's even more if I don't commit to a 3 yr agreement, and I don't want to.

[rkaufmann87]

Stacking takes place on the Seestar, not on your iPad, and if you're not going to save the individual frames, each image is going to be about 1 MB. If you save each frame, they're about 4MB each.

 

 

I thought all iPads have GPS these days. The Seestar needs to know its location, and it gets it from your iPad. If you don't have GPS, your iPad will use your WiFi connection to figure out where you are. If that fails, it will use your ISP's location which could be crazy far away.

 

You can build a custom AP rig from components with a ZWO ASIAIR as the controller. The software will run on your iPad and will be very familiar once you're used to the Seestar software. If you're thinking long-term uses for this iPad, I wouldn't skimp on it. They get obsolete quickly enough without you buying one today that just gets you by then wanting it to do more in 2-4 years. 

 

Even if you were to save all your subframes so that you can stack frames over multiple nights, none of that happens on your iPad. In fact you can set up a shooting plan on your iPad, get it started, then turn off the iPad and go to bed. The Seestar will shoot while you sleep. Then wake up in the morning and check the results by reconnecting your iPad. So the performance of the iPad doesn't matter. You're only using it to view images, not process them or actively drive the Seestar. And the images from an S50 aren't that large. 1080x1960 is the normal size; 2160x3920 at the full mosaic size.
 

Craig, I have a question you may know the answer to. If I shoot an image over 2-3 nights to gather more data, will the SeeStar know to put the individual images in the same folder. I’d like to gather about 8-10 hours of data on a faint object and then stack when I have all the images, is that possible using the stacking within the SeeStar?

[CraigR]

.... I remember reading last year that there weren't any iPad apps for processing, which surprised me.

 

.... only cellular iPads have GPS, which is frustrating.

 

.... MacBooks are on sale too, a comparably equipped model with 256GB storage and the M4 chip is $850.  Can you connect that to a Seestar, but have the MacBook get its location from my phone?  Not sure if that version is enough to run any stacking software down the road; I guess SharpCap would have to run under a windows emulator.

You can do basic photo editing on an iPad with Lightroom or other tools. But if you want to stack your subframes and use programs like Siril, you need a PC or a Mac.

 

I don't think I've ever had an iPad that didn't have cellular, so I didn't know GPS was connected to that. The cellular plan is only $10/month on top of my other cellular charges, so no big deal. 

 

You can get an M4 Mac mini with 16GB/256GB for $500-$600. All the M-series Macs run iPad apps natively. You get them from the App store. Not all developers turn on the option to let you download iPad apps to a Mac, but the Seestar app will run that way. If you want to run it on a PC you need an Android emulator, which adds a layer of complexity.

 

With respect to SharpCap, I've never used it. I thought it was a Windows app, which suggests you don't need an emulator.
 

[CraigR]

Craig, I have a question you may know the answer to. If I shoot an image over 2-3 nights to gather more data, will the SeeStar know to put the individual images in the same folder. I’d like to gather about 8-10 hours of data on a faint object and then stack when I have all the images, is that possible using the stacking within the SeeStar?

First, turn on the option to save all frames. It's in "Settings" in the Seestar app.

 

Once you do that, you'll use the Deep Sky Stack option from the home screen in the Seestar app to stack all the frames you have for a particular target. It doesn't matter when they were taken; it stacks them all.

 

I ran into problems somewhere around 2500-3000 frames. Even if I delete everything else, including the JPG and thumbnails of the individual FIT files (especially those), there was not enough memory on the S50 to stack that many frames. If you can shoot 30-second exposures, that will help, but you probably need to be in eq mode to do that.

 

8 hours of 10 second images is would put you at that limit. Even 20-second images would help; that would be 1440 frames I think. It's super slow, but you can just let it sit there and stack while you do other things.

[Craig Smith]

You can do basic photo editing on an iPad with Lightroom or other tools. But if you want to stack your subframes and use programs like Siril, you need a PC or a Mac.

 

I don't think I've ever had an iPad that didn't have cellular, so I didn't know GPS was connected to that. The cellular plan is only $10/month on top of my other cellular charges, so no big deal. 

 

You can get an M4 Mac mini with 16GB/256GB for $500-$600. All the M-series Macs run iPad apps natively. You get them from the App store. Not all developers turn on the option to let you download iPad apps to a Mac, but the Seestar app will run that way. If you want to run it on a PC you need an Android emulator, which adds a layer of complexity.

 

With respect to SharpCap, I've never used it. I thought it was a Windows app, which suggests you don't need an emulator.
 

Thanks.  Yeah it's only $10/month base price but $17 with taxes so $204/year.  I've never had a tablet but I just don't anticipate a need for cellular right now.  Plus I don't want any additional commitment to my current provider, so that makes it $250 more than the wifi version.  (Although it's a little unclear.)

 

The Mac Mini has always been great bang for your buck, and it appears popular for remote Seestar applications.  But I want something with a screen to view real-time for EAA.

 

Yes, Sharpcap is a Windows app.

[Craig Smith]

I guess another option is to connect using my phone and start it, and then switch over to the tablet.  Of course I can enter things manually as well.  On my other scopes that got really annoying; I really appreciated my GPS scope.  Maybe easier on the Seestar though.  First world problems.

Edited by Craig Smith, 16 June 2025 - 07:45 PM.

[Overtime]

Yup iPads are more expensive than Android no doubt about it, however there are frequent sales on the  iPad. For example Amazon has the 256GB 11" iPad Air for $599 right now. Not cheap but as mentioned it's a real  powerhouse too.

I paid about $80.00 for my android it has 12 gig of ram and 512 GB HD and a bunch of other stuff. I was going to show the exact one but it looks like it's not available. 

[Overtime]

I guess another option is to connect using my phone and start it, and then switch over to the tablet.  Of course I can enter things manually as well.  On my other scopes that got really annoying; I really appreciated my GPS scope.  Maybe easier on the Seestar though.  First world problems.

I let the SeeStar do my stacking. Then I share it to google photos. Might be an easier way to do it but that's how I am doing it for now.

Edited by Overtime, 17 June 2025 - 10:30 AM.

[Ice Cube]

Thanks.  Yeah it's only $10/month base price but $17 with taxes so $204/year.  I've never had a tablet but I just don't anticipate a need for cellular right now.  Plus I don't want any additional commitment to my current provider, so that makes it $250 more than the wifi version.  (Although it's a little unclear.)

 

The Mac Mini has always been great bang for your buck, and it appears popular for remote Seestar applications.  But I want something with a screen to view real-time for EAA.

 

Yes, Sharpcap is a Windows app.

strictly speaking, you can use the GPS capability of an iPad without using the cellular capability (and associated fees).  

my semi-retired one uses my local wifi network after i transferred it's cellular plan to my new one.

[Overtime]

strictly speaking, you can use the GPS capability of an iPad without using the cellular capability (and associated fees).  

my semi-retired one uses my local wifi network after i transferred it's cellular plan to my new one.

I don't use the cellular with my tablets, I have a phone to talk on if I have to. I use my home wi-fi for any transfers of data. I could also connect to my phones hotspot if  I had to.As far as the gps I think it works on my android when I use the wi-fi at home. 

[Overtime]

Au contraire! I SeeStar is great for EAA. Not ideal for all objects, but what really is? I use an older IPad with mine and it works great.

 

Here is a shot of NGC 4565 taken from TSP:

 

 

NGC 4565.JPG

I wonder if  you could share it with a smart tv and get an even bigger view? I haven't tried it yet but I may have to try it. I also think I might be able to do that with my 8in scope when I get the mount back from being fixed.

[sanford12]

I guess another option is to connect using my phone and start it, and then switch over to the tablet.  Of course I can enter things manually as well.  On my other scopes that got really annoying; I really appreciated my GPS scope.  Maybe easier on the Seestar though.  First world problems.

I have a Samsung A9 Plus tablet. They sell for around 200 or less on sale. You don't need internet to connect to the S50. I use it to process the .jpg images with Snapseed which looks a lot like Adobe Photoshop Express which I also use. It's a really good mid-level tablet that's fast, has a micro sd card slot for memory expansion which a lot of tablets have dropped including Apple