My name is Ali and I am an amateur astronomer!
It all started with a trip to the scientific center in my home country of Kuwait. I was 8 years old. I remember being mesmerized from the start when I saw those mini telescopes lined up in the gift store. A decade and some years later, I was back home after spending 12 years abroad. That's when I rediscovered my love for the sky. I spent weeks researching the hobby, quickly familiarizing myself with all things optical! Recalibrated my budgets and bought my second telescope. It was a 12 inch dobsonian that I can barely move, and I took it to the desert the following night. It was there that I captured my first astro-image of Saturn.
"There has to be a better way to do this," I told myself.
At around 6am that very same morning, I placed an order for my first ZWO planetary camera and down the rabbit whole I was blissfully lost.
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Just discovered your channel recently and really enjoy your videos. Not sure what mount you are using but that thing is a brute. Do you have to get a crane to move it outside? I do have one suggestion and I hope you don't take it as a negative. You talk pretty fast which sometimes makes it hard for me to understand. Again, really like your channel and hope you will continue.
@@marvinwhisman3333 My back complains every-time I have to move this beast of a mount outside. It’s an EQ8R. Thank you for the suggestion and of course I won’t take it negatively. I’m new to youtube so any feedback is helpful to me!! Clear skies!!
A superb video the best I've seen on KZread, it was just the right pace for a newbie and old personage like myself. Thankyou I have been trying to decide which to go with......Stellarmate or AISAir........so your video has helped me decide thank you.👍
@@mikeswift926 Thank you for leaving this encouraging comment!
Been a month since you made this and there is no mention of it on ToupTecs website... wonder if ZWO has them in court over copyright issues!?
What pi does this use as its base? I know the pi 5 came out recently and it'd be nice if companies would start using it. I'm going to make an educated guess and say this is a pi 4 based on the lack of cooling vents for active cooling. In that case, I'd be interested to see live stacking and file transfer performance without using a dedicated storage medium like a nvme ssd or flashdrive. I currently use a pi 4 4gb running stellarmate and it has its issues and live stacking isn't the best. All this being said the fact that this has support for non zwo equipment is definitely a selling point for me.
@@PhotonReceiverAstrophotography Hey, I was told by ToupTek support that it runs on a Raspberry Pi CM4 motherboard 👍🏻 Thanks for the great comment, I’ll definitely work on more content on the Astrostation in the future!
@@AstraPharmaq8 I'd honestly be willing to pay for the software they use. I'm pretty sure the compute module 4 and pi4b share the same SoC and could theoretically run the same operating system so long as there isn't any proprietary hardware that's hard coded into the software.
Wow. This is good for the industry. I love ZWO stuff but they need competition although this comes pretty close to a direct copy just looking at the box. Enjoyed your video. New subscriber looking forward to more videos.
@@marvinwhisman3333 Thank you for watching and leaving this comment and I couldn’t agree more!!
Great video. Want to hear more about this!
Thanks for the heads up!!
@@celiaxel3448 you’re very welcome!
Will it support dual setups, controlling both cameras on the same device, dithering, etc?
Great video ❤️ شرح جميل عمل رائع استمر 👍
@@haq4016 شكراً اخوي
Thanks for doing this as Stellarmate's website videos are so out of date. You are clear and easy to understand. Thank you!
@@Danwalters3 Thanks for watching, glad I can be useful!
Hello, nice tutto! I wanted to know if it was possible to connect an automatic FlatPanel (or control the 12v outputs) when the sequence is finished to run it automatically. THANKS
Wow, great images! Microwave food? Would love to see sizzling beef on the grill haha😂
@@toanthai I was the one sizzling out there in the heat, perhaps in the winter 🤣. Thanks for watching!
It appears after reading many reviews that Stellarmate MUST work out some very big issues. The product is not user friendly and their online tutorial videos are extremely old with no new videos being made by the company. It amazes me that a company releases a product that only works partially. What is Stellarmate doing to fix all of the problems, issues, and concerns from their dissatisfied customers? Its no wonder there are very few online reviews of this product. Please listen to your customers and the astrophotography community Stellarmate! We want to like and use the product but the product itself will not allow for it.
Can it run two scopes synchronized?
@@DrunkferretKG I don’t think it can, great suggestion for team though!
lets wait for the arriving in the americas . . .thanks for your effort
Nice tutorial ! I’ve been testing the StellarMate Pro now for about two months but it’s been difficult because of weather. Hoping to out up a review soon. I have upgraded the ssd drive though to 1tb for additional storage as the 128tb wasn’t quite enough for me. Thank you for all your hard work on the video. Best regards Luis from NY
@@Planetreefastro Thank you for watching and always supporting the channel Luis. Hope you can try out your SM soon!
It's UI and app needs more fine tuning. Looking forward to picking one of these up when it ages a bit more. Let them have time to work out the bugs and have a more mature interface.
@@cryhavoc38 Agreed, It has a long was to go before it can truly be a viable replacement for the ASIair
Exciting. Please keep us posted if you have any info on the official release.
@@shaunozs1ra92 I will! … Thanks for watching!
Great. I set 0.75x speed to follow the explanation.
@@joajoajoaquin I’ll slow down next time!!
Looks good. I'm still waiting for the QHY version. Thanks for sharing.
@@southbronxny5727 Have you heard that they are working on one? 🤔
@@AstraPharmaq8Nah…nothing but If qhy was smart, they should be working on stuff already.
I love it! Now the Chinese are stealing technology from each other instead of everyone else!
Just bought a Stellarmate Pro, and I'm still learning how to use it. I have found your tutorials very helpful in this, thank you.
Thanks for watching!!
Hi Ali! Somehow adding responses to existing comments does not work. 🥴 I had the chance to run a session with the AstroStation. Guiding was working for me as normal. I just don't like the way the AstroStation is doing the calibration going from 5 sec exposures down to 0.5 sec as it looses the star in between while calibrating. Unfortunately I had the issue that that my TF Card in an SD Adapter was not recognized that day. Now I have 30 shots on my Astrostation and connection to my PC via USB C cable does not work. On top there is currently no option to move files between the internal storage and the SD Card. I had the same issue that you had too that the images are not stretched for preview. If I do changes on the Histogram sliders there is also no change. This results in the fact that I currently do not know if the plate solve prior to starting the exposures has worked or not as I could not hear any correction movements of my mount. I have sent a list of 12 points to Touptek to look into for upcoming releases of the firmware. I have agreed with Touptek to send in my observations of bugs and issues and it looks like that they picked up my ask to submit such as very positive. Touptek seems to release updates every friday. So it could happen at any friday night that you can run a full flawless session with the AstroStation.
Hi! Cool that you tested it! I preorderded in the EU. unfortunately the touptek EU site has not been updated with the astrostation. Does the astrostation have PPEC ( periodic error correction) function? I know its maybe very early to ask but yeah if not, they will add it i think
This looks really interesting, thank you; hadn't heard of this until your video popped up 👍 Unfortunately the only sellers taking pre-orders in the UK are pricing it higher than the ASIAIR (£350 vs ~£330) which I find strange... Time will tell I guess.
Great video Ali! Looking forward to more of videos from you.
Thanks! I really appreciate the support!!
Will DSLRs work?
I’ll check and let you know!
@@AstraPharmaq8 thank you 🙏
Thanks for the video. I was considering buying the ARCO alone. It's good that you mentioned it doesn't work without a focuser from PPL. I like their products, but I don't want to buy everything from them since they are really pricey. So, I think the Pegasus rotator is the better product.
There is a brand called wanderer that is also an option, haven’t used their products but the price is a lot more palatable. Thanks for watching!!
@@AstraPharmaq8 I had „contact“ with wanderer. A few friends of line had there first and 2nd series of powerboxes. All of them died after a few month to a year. One of them died with smoke. Now wanderer says the new version dosent have any problems anymore but I have made the experience many times that its more intelligent to buy one time a expensive and well made product then first a cheap / bad one and them the expensive :D
Great video. I am going to purchase the Stellarmate Pro in the near future. I have one question. I am still getting my astrophotography game down. When setting up the exposure I understand what the gain does but what does the offset do and what is the general rule for setting it.?
Gain refers to the amplification of the camera sensor's signal. Increasing the gain makes the sensor more sensitive to light, capturing fainter details, but can also increase noise. Offset on the other hand adjusts the baseline level of the signal. It's used to ensure that the darkest parts of the image are above zero to avoid clipping shadows, thus preserving detail in low-light areas.
I appreciate the response. Thank you.
This device could be a game changer. What about WiFi signal? How reliable was connectivity and distance?
Connectivity is very similar to the ASIair, which is stable once connected. As far as distance, I haven’t done much testing. Great idea for the next video I do on the thing! Thanks for watching!
Great tutorial although I am seriously thinking about getting the TouTek Astro station for my portable rig, do you know what equipment its able to run yet? I only ask as the last time I checked it was ZWO, QHY & Touptek cameras? Unless of course its not to difficult to add others, I only ask as there's a vendor in the UK who will be selling them.
It will include the entire INDI library! I don't think you'll need to worry about compatibility with it. I would only be concerned about the reliability of the software. As of now, things are not as stable as they should be, but the team is iterating and releasing updates every week, so hopefully, we'll reach a stable version soon!
Thanks for this heads up!
No worries, thanks for watching!!
what is going to be the price ? And when is it going to be accesible ?
My Astrostation arrive today without any pre-notice. I can control everything in a dry run. I now need to test it when it is dark. Let's see if version 1.0 20240621 can do better. Btw: the dongle is used to connect to home WiFi?
ZWO should open its system
Will have to if the Astrostation is a success! Even this will support ZWO gear, they'll have no choice in my opinion
@@ottoertl1866 @scottDavies Agreed!
Wonderful content you are doing!! Keep it coming. Clear skies.
Installed Metaguide 6.1 several days ago but vidprops would not longer open. Full removal and reinstall but vidprops button does not bring up the screen for settings for it. Uninstalled and gave up. Tried to find an older version but struck out.
Great video! I am definitely getting one of these. Do you happen to know the official release date yet for the USA? Keep up the great work!
Please, compare this Touptek AstroStation with Stellarmate in addition to ASiAir. What is there inside? PC, Raspberry…? I am not sure using a SD card is a good idea from Touptek. My experience with the Stellarmate OS in Pi4 and Pi5 is that SD cards are very very slow in comparison with a PCIe NVMe or USB SSD. I saw your channel time ago but today I subscribed! Thanks!
Maybe I misled you with the SD card comment, the Astrostation has internal storage just like the ASIair. The SD card slot can be used for extra storage. Touptek are releasing a new version of the app every week and iterating very quickly. When a more stable version of the app is released, I will definitely make a full comparison video. Thank you for watching!
What are the video options on this? My main problems with the Asiair Plus are the 1080p video resolution limit and the lack of video autorun. The former issue makes my Asi533mc useless for lunar, and the latter makes solar imaging incredibly annoying as I need to manually start each exposure for a timelapse. Sitting around refreshing a one minute phone timer for three hours is not efficient or enjoyable.
Glad you got your hands on one. I had thought it was just rumour. Hopefully it will drive ZWO to open up the Air to other equipment. Competition is always good!
Let hope the software gets as mature as the ASIAir’s ….. Right now it seems very rough around the edges. With a little bit of polish this could be just what the community needs!!
Awesome video buddy…looks like a great fit between ASIAIR and EAGLE…nice work and have fun with it! Best wishes from Scotland…👍🏻
Thank you for the support! I love Scotland, visited Glasgow and Edinburgh multiple times while studying in the UK. Beautiful country! Clear skies!
Joined and liked. Bring it on !!!
I can't wait to try one of these. I think they will sell a lot of them.
Thank you for commenting on my video Ben! I hold you in very high regard when it comes to content creators in this field and I’ve been inspired by you a few others to start my little channel!! You’ve made my day, clear skies!!
@@AstraPharmaq8 That is great. More good content is always welcomed.
Hi Ali! You got another new subscriber.👍🏻 Thank you very much for the brief review! I am also thinking about affording the Astrostation. I have a dealer by hand who could ship it to me right away. Even though the App is not released yet I was able to dl the APK from the Touptek website with some trial an error. What is the software version that you have? I have Version 1.0. Looks like it is not any beta version anymore.
Hey 👋🏻 Thank you for subscribing!! I am currently on 1.0.20240607. Honestly, I would advise you to wait until more bugs gets fixed. Guiding still isn’t working and for some reason the auto-stretch is broken now 🤔. Thanks again for the comment and the sub!!
@@AstraPharmaq8 Thanks for your input. The 20240607 is the version that I have too. It looks like Touptek is coming out with updates to the App almost every week. So there should be hope that they may fix the guiding very soon. Somewhere I found the information that the the guiding also utilizes PHD(2). As this program is state of the art for guiding and can communicate with any other software I guess it is just a small adjustment of parameters in the API until communication works properly. In a Chinese video that I unfortunately do not find anymore as it was not uploaded to KZread, the guiding was working from what was visible on the screen. Maybe the bug was introduced by fixing something else. Shipping from China will take a few days that there should be at least one update to the app until I have the box in my hands. I think I will give it a try that once the software is working properly that I am ready to go. I am waiting desperately for the Astrostation since it got announced. Btw does the Astrostation support the Gemini focuser and gear from Wanderer Astro? That things are not working properly I am used to when using my AsiAir Plus. 😄 Screen refresh not working after tablet was locked, counter not working from time to time, AF routine hanging, connecting - disconnecting the TF card now an then during an imaging session, saving exposures not working in Autorun, etc. I also already had the case that PHD2 in the AsiAir switched the direction of guiding pulses after a few minutes on DEC axis. So the AsiAir is also not any close to perfect and issues may occur.
Could you send the apk? The website doesn't show me any.
I've had mine on order since February and I'm a reseller and haven't gotten hold of it yet. Surprised you managed ir
Great report AstraPharma, thanks for bringing this to the attention of the community - definitely one to watch :)
Thanks for dropping this comment. There’s a new beta to try out for this and I’ll be showcasing it too very soon!!
About time a company took on the ASi air, plus I love the fact it looks almost identical to one, the app looks good & seems to work well obviously the official app will function as it should & hopefully be a lot less buggy than the Stellarmate's. I can see these being big sellers when they are officially released as when they are I'll be on the shopping list for one.
There is a new beta that fixes the issues with this version, I’m just waiting for a free day to dive into it and make a complete walkthrough! Thanks for the comment and the support!!
Thanks for the great video, can’t wait to get my hands on one when they are released!
I appreciate your support, keep an out on the channel this week or the next. TT has released a new beta that we’ll test in a long form video 👌🏼
That sunset in the desert with the gear all setup looked amazing and the images are superb! Great job, I’ve subscribed.
Tell me about it. I really appreciate your support and I’m glad you enjoyed the video!!
Someone is getting more and more subscribers every day ;) Keep up the great work !
I can't express enough how much comments like these mean to me. Between work, family and life's never ending obligations it takes a concerted effort of will to make these videos, simple as they may seem. Thank you for making my day friend, and clear skies!!