New Astronomy Computer

One of the things on my very long to-do list is to build a small observatory shed next to my outdoor telescope pier and then fence the entire area to keep out bears, bobcats and skunks.  I have sketched all sorts of plans but, between continuing health issues followed by the pandemic and lack of available lumber, I have made absolutely no progress in actually building this shed/observatory area.  Well...  I did build the telescope pier and the foundation for the shed but that is all that has been accomplished thus far. 

My plan was to use an old Hewlett-Packard desktop computer for controlling my astronomy gear and it would be housed in this astronomy shed.  This old computer is in the eight to ten year old range and hasn't been used at all over the past two years.  When I purchased a new computer two years ago, I saved this old computer specifically for the purpose of using it in my new observatory.  I recently started loading astronomy programs onto this old computer to get it ready for its new purpose but I ran into problems that indicate a motherboard problem, unfortunately.  

I looked into replacing the motherboard on this old computer and that started to get a bit complicated and, consequently, pricey because other peripheral components would also need to be replaced since socket types have changed over the past decade.  Since the new motherboard has different sized sockets for components, the old components in the old computer will not fit into the new motherboard.  By the time I added up the cost of all the components I would need to replace, I was at the cost of a low-end new desktop computer.  This meant it was time to purchase a new desktop computer.

I made a list of the specs I desired at a minimum to run my astronomy gear.  Then I started searching online for new desktop computers.  One of my priorities was to keep the computer itself below $600 but I still needed a list of needed specs.  

My current desktop that I use everyday is an AMD computer with Ryzen graphics and I am very happy with it.  This particular desktop is way out of the price range I want for the observatory but I decided to stick with the AMD/Ryzen combo.

I/O ports on this computer would be important too.  I would need enough ports to run multiple pieces of equipment at the same time.  I knew I needed USB 3.0 ports and I knew I needed at least two monitors.  

Also important to me is having SSD drives instead of old mechanical hard drives.  I won't ever go back to old mechanical disk drives.  I've had far too many fail after only a year or two.  The SSD's last longer and are far faster.  The speed is actually crucial for my particular purpose.

After a quick search, I found a sub-$500 Acer computer that met almost all of my desired specs.  I then found a monitor in the sub-$100 range and purchased two of them.  

The computer and the monitors arrived within a few days.  It required another few days to download and install all the software I would need for this little observatory.  Yesterday, I tested some of my astronomy gear on this new computer and it is working great!  This little desktop is fast, nimble and I honestly have had no little hiccups at all with it.  I believe that sticking with AMD/Ryzen/SSD was the best decision for this computer.

I'll also have all my microscope stuff in this little observatory so this new computer will also be used for microscopy as well.  

Above, I mentioned that this new Acer computer met almost all of my desired specs.  I prefer more RAM than this computer has so I needed to add more RAM so I purchased an additional 24gb's of RAM cards for a total of 32gb's of RAM.  I also upgraded the Wifi card to a better card since some of the stuff I will be controlling will be through wireless connections.  Apparently many new computers are shipping with only 5ghz Wifi and not including 2.4ghz Wifi.  One of my telescope mounts is 2.4ghz only so I need dual band Wifi.  Upgrading the RAM and the Wifi was simple, painless, inexpensive and it works flawlessly.

I keep remembering more software that I need to download and install but I am very happy with this unplanned but necessary purchase.  Now I just need to find some lumber available at reasonable prices and get to building the observatory...

UPDATE - 22 April 2021:  I tested my telescope mounts with this new computer controlling them...  all worked very well.  I then tested my astronomy cameras and they worked very well too.  Actually, all of these things worked far better on this new desktop computer than they previously did using my little Microsoft Surface tablet.  That should come as no surprise since that tablet is very old but it was nice watching everything work as it should.

I just realized that I will also need to install all my Sony software for my Sony cameras as well as all my microscope software.  That will be a job for tomorrow....