So useful. Unlike so many astronomy channels you actually go through the assembly and explanation of the practical use step by step. This is very useful for those of us like me who love astronomy but are not from an engineering or computer background.
I just wanted to say thanks, all of your videos seem to hit me at exactly the right level. They are a great mix of technical but straightforward and your pictures and progress are what I aspire to. As a Houstonian it’s also great to see what your results are like in DFW area. Keep it up, they’re super useful and I look forward to them!
Such a wonderful video. My Eagle 4 Pro arrives today and I'm excited. I subscribed to your channel. How did you install your software. I'm guess through remote desktop
Any of the guys here tried N.I.N.A astronomy software. Have a look and delight in the fact that not only is it a great piece of software, it's also free but please give a donation to the creators so they can further improve the product.
Very informative video! Good job. I'm pretty new to this hobby and I'm attracted to every new bell and whistle I see. I've seen this system and I've seen ZWO's ASIAir. If you've used, or seen, both, what is the difference between the two? I know there's a bigger price tag for the Eagle 3, but does it do the same stuff better? Or does it have more capabilities? I know the ASIAir has it's own guiding system, but you're using PHD3 (which I already use). I don't mean to ask a ton of questions, but it seems like you've taken your time to learn this one fairly well already. TIA and clear skies!
Getting the new shiny bug is very common in Astrophotography! You're in good company. To get to your $$$ question: The eagle costs substantially more than other options like the ASIAir and Stellarmate simply because the hardware is far more robust. The ASIAir and Stellarmate units are based on a RaspberryPi computer, where the Eagle 3 is quite literally a headless laptop. They come with Intel processors, and at least double the RAM even for the lowest end Eagle 3. The ASIAir and Stellarmates have just enough processing and RAM power to do the bare minimum for remote astrophotography. The Eagle is a true laptop replacement. And when you think about the price associated with what a Laptop, the Eagle being a specialty computer that is more weather resilient than a typical laptop means that they really are on par in terms of money spent, but the value is in favor of the Eagle.
@@I_Spaced_Out That's pretty much the answer I expected. The Eagle 3 seems like a pro unit, whereas the ASIAir is aimed more for beginner/hobbyist market. I probably won't move to one of these in the near future, because I do like my laptop (at the moment). But I do see me making the move later down the road. Thanks for the info.
Ozarks Astrophotography Allen is not wrong, but there’s another thing to keep in mind. Both the StellarMate and ASI air are Raspberry Pi devices, which are super light and low powered. aSIair uses their own software to make image capture and guiding super easy at a pretty cheap price. StellarMate is a basic operating system and some Astro software that you need to setup for your gear. That can be kind of daunting. I’ve tried it and didn’t like it too much, but it’s damn near free, which is hard to beat. The Eagle is a Windows 10 PC first and foremost, so you bring whatever Windows software you like to it, so it’s an easy transition. Everything else is custom hardware for form factor and power management via some simple pre loaded software. It’s awesome if you want a full Laptop and power manager built into your scope, but you’re paying for and adding the same amount of weight as doing that. All of these can be great options depending on your preference.
@@lazyastronomy3348 Okay, that connects the dots. Being a Windows 10 computer you're able to use whatever software you like as long as it's W10 compatible. Not sure why I didn't grasp that to begin with. LOL
I saw a previous question about how to use SkySafari with this set up... I saw that you use SGPro...PLEASE could you provide more information? I went to their website and can't find anything about it. You show it on the video... all I need are just a few more specifics... Thanks for the video and PLEASE thanks for a bit more information on how to use SkySafari. Thank you very much!
Sure. Look in the SGP help file for “allow external control”. The doc will show you where to click the checkbox in the settings to allow external control. It should also have the settings to put into Sky Safari to get you connected.
I've been quite interested in this piece of kit for a while. The price tag right now is putting me off, but I am curious to know which flavor of Eagle 3 are you using? I don't recall you mentioning if this was the Pentium, i3 or i5 variant. Thanks in advance, I'll be interested to see you do some tests in terms of USB to SSD write speeds on those USB 3.0 ports and see if this would work for planetary / lunar / solar work. That's been a massive limitation of mine with an Intel Compute Stick i3, ultimately why I stopped using it.
Allen Mitchell I went for the pro version. I don’t think the version will make that much of a difference, honestly. I like to push any computer I have to it’s limits, so I went for the beefiest one. The biggest slowdown issue would be with plate solving. If you don’t do that or don’t mind it taking a bit longer to do the solve, any option should be good.
@@lazyastronomy3348 plate solving is my jam! TheSkyX makes it nearly idiot proof with their Paramount MyT. My Intel compute stick m3 can handle plate solving without issue. It has a hell of a time running all the software since the 2GB of memory almost gets completely used up by Windows and the sky x
Allen Mitchell yeah, I’ve never used a compute stick, but I’d bet it would max out quick. I’d think any of the Eagles would perform considerably better.
Great info and easy to understand for the not computer or engineering savvy , would you care to share what programs you have downloaded on your ipad to make all this work so flawless ?
Thanks Nelson! "Flawlessly" is probably overstating it :) If you're using a PC of some type to drive your gear, there are two types of programs that I use that work very well. The first is some sort of remote desktop app. If the computer is a Windows 10 Pro machine like the eagle, you can just use the Windows Remote Desktop app. Otherwise, programs like TeamViewer or VNC have apps you can run on your tablet/phone to connect via a similar app you install on the PC. The other app I use is Sky Safari Pro. It's basically a nice planetarium app on the iPad, but the pro version (approx $50) also comes with some nice telescope control capabilities that sync up with Sequence Generator pro. You can always use free planetarium software on the PC and control via remote desktop, but I really like having an app designed for touch controls. There is some setup involved with each of those pieces of software, but once things are up and running, it's so nice to control via the tablet.
@@lazyastronomy3348 thank you , i do have the asiair and was planning on running it with a windows based laptop, but was wondering if it could be done with the ipad , thanks for your patience yet again
Great explanation ,(subscribed) thank you great video as well , question , would you say this is a must have for a beginner set up ( mount ,scope ,dslr or cmos , filter wheel ,? thank you
nelson rivera thanks! A good thing to remember is that almost nothing in this hobby is a must have, and you can always work with what you have to get good results. If you use a computer controlled camera, you’ll need a computer, but you can get a raspberry pi solution for $100, a cheap laptop, or a windows computer stick if that’s what you can make work. I’d only go into an option like this once you’ve really gotten fully hooked on the hobby and decided that you want something just like this because it’s a super specific thing, not something you can use a lot of different ways.
Great video with detailed information! I am thinking of buying one as well, and I have seen you are working with PegasusAstro Focusers as well. How did you manage to power the pegasusastro with the Eagle? According to Pegasus it needs 12V 10A, which the Eagle does not have...
I think it's the Pocket Powerbox that requires the 10a power supply, so it can provide enough power to other devices. The Eagle replaces that part. The Focuscube requires less than 3 amps, so the Eagle can handle that fine.
He fast forwards right through the part that I was having trouble with, that being, connecting via remote desktop and wifi from my laptop to the Eagle. Therefore, at this point in time, this was useless to me.
So useful. Unlike so many astronomy channels you actually go through the assembly and explanation of the practical use step by step. This is very useful for those of us like me who love astronomy but are not from an engineering or computer background.
I just wanted to say thanks, all of your videos seem to hit me at exactly the right level. They are a great mix of technical but straightforward and your pictures and progress are what I aspire to. As a Houstonian it’s also great to see what your results are like in DFW area.
Keep it up, they’re super useful and I look forward to them!
Orion2400 thanks, that’s great to hear. I grew up in Houston, so I feel for you on your humidity and weather prediction problems!
looks like a great unit easy to use and run once set up great video lots of handy and good info
cheers
james D
Such a wonderful video. My Eagle 4 Pro arrives today and I'm excited. I subscribed to your channel. How did you install your software. I'm guess through remote desktop
Any of the guys here tried N.I.N.A astronomy software. Have a look and delight in the fact that not only is it a great piece of software, it's also free but please give a donation to the creators so they can further improve the product.
EXCELLENT presentation! I want to get into astrophotography and looking at the equipment I will need. Thanks!
Hi, it seems to me that this is the only PrimaluceLab set up video- thank you. Can you tell if you have to buy cables in addition to the hardware?
Very informative video! Good job.
I'm pretty new to this hobby and I'm attracted to every new bell and whistle I see. I've seen this system and I've seen ZWO's ASIAir. If you've used, or seen, both, what is the difference between the two? I know there's a bigger price tag for the Eagle 3, but does it do the same stuff better? Or does it have more capabilities? I know the ASIAir has it's own guiding system, but you're using PHD3 (which I already use). I don't mean to ask a ton of questions, but it seems like you've taken your time to learn this one fairly well already. TIA and clear skies!
Getting the new shiny bug is very common in Astrophotography! You're in good company.
To get to your $$$ question: The eagle costs substantially more than other options like the ASIAir and Stellarmate simply because the hardware is far more robust.
The ASIAir and Stellarmate units are based on a RaspberryPi computer, where the Eagle 3 is quite literally a headless laptop. They come with Intel processors, and at least double the RAM even for the lowest end Eagle 3. The ASIAir and Stellarmates have just enough processing and RAM power to do the bare minimum for remote astrophotography. The Eagle is a true laptop replacement. And when you think about the price associated with what a Laptop, the Eagle being a specialty computer that is more weather resilient than a typical laptop means that they really are on par in terms of money spent, but the value is in favor of the Eagle.
@@I_Spaced_Out That's pretty much the answer I expected. The Eagle 3 seems like a pro unit, whereas the ASIAir is aimed more for beginner/hobbyist market. I probably won't move to one of these in the near future, because I do like my laptop (at the moment). But I do see me making the move later down the road. Thanks for the info.
Ozarks Astrophotography Allen is not wrong, but there’s another thing to keep in mind. Both the StellarMate and ASI air are Raspberry Pi devices, which are super light and low powered. aSIair uses their own software to make image capture and guiding super easy at a pretty cheap price.
StellarMate is a basic operating system and some Astro software that you need to setup for your gear. That can be kind of daunting. I’ve tried it and didn’t like it too much, but it’s damn near free, which is hard to beat.
The Eagle is a Windows 10 PC first and foremost, so you bring whatever Windows software you like to it, so it’s an easy transition. Everything else is custom hardware for form factor and power management via some simple pre loaded software. It’s awesome if you want a full
Laptop and power manager built into your scope, but you’re paying for and adding the same amount of weight as doing that.
All of these can be great options depending on your preference.
@@lazyastronomy3348 Okay, that connects the dots. Being a Windows 10 computer you're able to use whatever software you like as long as it's W10 compatible. Not sure why I didn't grasp that to begin with. LOL
I saw a previous question about how to use SkySafari with this set up... I saw that you use SGPro...PLEASE could you provide more information? I went to their website and can't find anything about it. You show it on the video... all I need are just a few more specifics... Thanks for the video and PLEASE thanks for a bit more information on how to use SkySafari.
Thank you very much!
Sure. Look in the SGP help file for “allow external control”. The doc will show you where to click the checkbox in the settings to allow external control. It should also have the settings to put into Sky Safari to get you connected.
I've been quite interested in this piece of kit for a while. The price tag right now is putting me off, but I am curious to know which flavor of Eagle 3 are you using? I don't recall you mentioning if this was the Pentium, i3 or i5 variant.
Thanks in advance, I'll be interested to see you do some tests in terms of USB to SSD write speeds on those USB 3.0 ports and see if this would work for planetary / lunar / solar work. That's been a massive limitation of mine with an Intel Compute Stick i3, ultimately why I stopped using it.
Allen Mitchell I went for the pro version. I don’t think the version will make that much of a difference, honestly. I like to push any computer I have to it’s limits, so I went for the beefiest one. The biggest slowdown issue would be with plate solving. If you don’t do that or don’t mind it taking a bit longer to do the solve, any option should be good.
@@lazyastronomy3348 plate solving is my jam! TheSkyX makes it nearly idiot proof with their Paramount MyT.
My Intel compute stick m3 can handle plate solving without issue.
It has a hell of a time running all the software since the 2GB of memory almost gets completely used up by Windows and the sky x
Allen Mitchell yeah, I’ve never used a compute stick, but I’d bet it would max out quick. I’d think any of the Eagles would perform considerably better.
@@lazyastronomy3348 Spoiler alert: Just don't use an ICS.
Great info and easy to understand for the not computer or engineering savvy , would you care to share what programs you have downloaded on your ipad to make all this work so flawless ?
Thanks Nelson! "Flawlessly" is probably overstating it :) If you're using a PC of some type to drive your gear, there are two types of programs that I use that work very well. The first is some sort of remote desktop app. If the computer is a Windows 10 Pro machine like the eagle, you can just use the Windows Remote Desktop app. Otherwise, programs like TeamViewer or VNC have apps you can run on your tablet/phone to connect via a similar app you install on the PC.
The other app I use is Sky Safari Pro. It's basically a nice planetarium app on the iPad, but the pro version (approx $50) also comes with some nice telescope control capabilities that sync up with Sequence Generator pro. You can always use free planetarium software on the PC and control via remote desktop, but I really like having an app designed for touch controls.
There is some setup involved with each of those pieces of software, but once things are up and running, it's so nice to control via the tablet.
@@lazyastronomy3348 thank you , i do have the asiair and was planning on running it with a windows based laptop, but was wondering if it could be done with the ipad , thanks for your patience yet again
Great review! Is there ani option to use Eagle with some polar alignment device like Polarmaster od iPolar? Thank you
Since the eagle is a windows PC, you could use any normal device like a pole master just fine.
How does this compare to OnStep?
Great explanation ,(subscribed) thank you great video as well , question , would you say this is a must have for a beginner set up ( mount ,scope ,dslr or cmos , filter wheel ,? thank you
nelson rivera thanks! A good thing to remember is that almost nothing in this hobby is a must have, and you can always work with what you have to get good results.
If you use a computer controlled camera, you’ll need a computer, but you can get a raspberry pi solution for $100, a cheap laptop, or a windows computer stick if that’s what you can make work. I’d only go into an option like this once you’ve really gotten fully hooked on the hobby and decided that you want something just like this because it’s a super specific thing, not something you can use a lot of different ways.
i ended up sending for asi air, cheaper for my set up
Great video with detailed information!
I am thinking of buying one as well, and I have seen you are working with PegasusAstro Focusers as well.
How did you manage to power the pegasusastro with the Eagle?
According to Pegasus it needs 12V 10A, which the Eagle does not have...
I think it's the Pocket Powerbox that requires the 10a power supply, so it can provide enough power to other devices. The Eagle replaces that part. The Focuscube requires less than 3 amps, so the Eagle can handle that fine.
@@lazyastronomy3348 Thank you!
Thank You so much; perfect explanation
Very nice thanks for the info.
BTW, it must be a nice unit. Made in Italy :) I was born their but am a USA citizen now.
He fast forwards right through the part that I was having trouble with, that being, connecting via remote desktop and wifi from my laptop to the Eagle. Therefore, at this point in time, this was useless to me.
Benny Hill music, lovin' it
LOL! Never get into a land war with Asians? WTF? 🤣
Another great video. I am hoping to pick up the Eagle 3 Pro for planetary imaging.
Scott