ZWO AM5 Review : Our New Favorite Astrophotography Mount
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- The ZWO AM5 is available here: bit.ly/3W2KrJC
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#ZWO #AM5
In this video, we review the ZWO AM5, a strain wave gear mount for astrophotography, and the first mount by ZWO. Its small size, weight and nice features make this mount awesome for beginner astrophotographers.
00:00 - Introduction
01:22 - What is the ZWO AM5?
02:42 - ZWO AM5 vs EQ6-R
04:59 - What's In the Box?
05:25 - Mount Design
07:14 - Using the AM5 with a Laptop
08:25 - Using the AM5 with the ASIAir
09:49 - Final Thoughts
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Starting Astrophotography, a Complete Guide: www.galactic-hunter.com/post/...
Beginner DSLR Astrophotography Equipment Guide: www.galactic-hunter.com/post/...
The equipment you see in most of our videos: www.galactic-hunter.com/blog/... - Zábava
Yep, I felt her pain. And yes, I believe this is my next purchase. Enjoying the presentation.
10 solid years with that EQG.. had a nice run for sure.
I leave my mounts outside under 365 covers year round.. don't think I'd want to do that with the AM5... but for a star party.. the AM5 looks perfect. CS!
Nice to see you back😊
Thank you! I finally got this mount on Wednesday, so this is exactly the content I wanted to see right now. Plus, it's just nice to see you both continue to create great videos. I'm glad you liked it so much that you are using it exclusively now. I'm really impressed with my AM5 so far, but it's been cloudy, so I've been testing it out during the day. I have two Takahashi scopes and the heaviest is a 14-pound Mewlon 180c, so the AM5/TC40 combo is just right for me. I put a 10-pound counterweight in the bag that comes with the TC40 for stability and that really helps.
Thanks and nice scopes! Yes good idea to put a weight in the bag for a heavy setup!
Love your work, thanks!
Thanks for the review. I am looking for a replacement for my EQ6 for trips, so this is all good info. .
Nice to see you guys really enjoying this mount! - I'd like to get one someday for portability, I don't have massively fond memories of carrying my eq6 & eq8 around! :-D
haha yes, we're officially done carrying heavy mounts after trying this one :D
Now, Luke! Everyone loves lugging around 100 lbs of mount.
What a great mount. I LOVE the bag art!
I received my AM5 the end of October and have had it out a couple of times since then (imaging the Flying Dragon Nebula, Sh2-114 for about 6.5 hours). It did a great job of tracking and coming from a SkyGuider Pro (without Goto and/or automated meridian flips) it's a fantastic -- and very welcome -- change. Almost fees like cheating! 😃I absolutely love it. I was up and running in no time and the pairing with the ASIAir Plus was absolutely seamless. Thanks so much for the AM5 reviews! These were helpful in getting started with the mount and were much appreciated. Keep up the great work.
the smart telescopes are cheating.... with this you at least need some understanding :)
I have an am5 on the way and i cant wait to use it. Ive been using a rowan belt drive modded sirius(heq-5 pro) mount for many years. With a peir extension and some of my larger scopes, its gotten so heavy that i find myself not setting up unless conditions are ideal. Which is very rare in my area. Its been almost a year since ive done any astrophotography.
Ive been eyeing the eq6 r pro for a long time. But i just knew, with more weight, id be even less likely to use it. Im so pumped to be able to grab a light weight rig with either my small raptor 61, or my edge hd8 with the hyperstar 4 and not have to worry about getting too close to the mount capacity.
Thank you guys for that review !! Now I may have to think about unloading my EQ6R-Pro lol
Great review! I've seen a lot of positive comments about this. Seems very solid!
I just received mine, will read your review again for tips and pointers. 😊The main issue some have reported is the carbon fiber tripod has torsional flexion in windy conditions. Now if I could just order clear skies I’d be set. New Mexico has become like Seattle, cloudy most of the time😢
Hi “Hunter” and again thx for your honest & great review. This tutorial apply to SWO AM3 too?
I finally got to use mine tonight as well! Very impressed, its so smooth and I forgot to start guiding for the first few 5 minute subs, but they were all good. started guiding and was running at .48 error. love this mount
Awesome, yes such a great mount
Based on what I have heard/read from other AM5 users, those are very impressive results Tim! Could you share your guiding set-up and guiding settings? Also, are you using the tripod that can be purchased with the AM5?
@@derekbaker3279 yes, I got the carbon fiber tripod with it. its really solid. I just have an svbony miniguidescope with an asi120m mini. control everything with an asiair pro. I was imaging widefield with my William Optics Space cat
@@Tim_the_Astronurd Thank you Tim. Much appreciated! 👍👍 The fact that the tripod was not being stressed by the weight of a heavier telescope probably helped. FWIW, I have heard/read that the heaviness of the imaging train on the tripod can be a factor in the tracking & guiding. The reason for that is due to the fact that, without a counterweight, the mount/tripod is not a balanced system...which means that when the load on the tripod shifts as the mount tracks across the sky, there may be flexure in the mount/tripod causing deviations in the tracking. (most likely the tripod). Cheers!
Looks like an excellent portable device for the smaller scopes. Nice run through. Great video.
not just small :) works great on my gso 8in and celestron 925 edgehd too
Excellent review. I think the guiding performance puts me off for that price point.
Excellent review as always. I think that many, me first and foremost, are also interested in knowing the settings you would give on Asiair plus for harmonic frames: exposure time (from 0.5 to1 sec ?), calibration step, Max Dec and Max RA duration, RA and Dec Aggr.
Thank you very much
Nice review. I just got an AM5 and ASIAIR Plus. I wonder why it is not recommended to attach the ASIAIR to the shoe on the AM5
You mention the need of a computer but aren’t you mistaken. If you have asi air plus and a smart device you can polar align plate solve etc
Mine is back with retailer - weird 5" spikes intermittently.
Great Video! 10:53 LOL I want one, but $2k is challenging. And AM3 is too small for me.
Is it possible to image the stars with a phone that has a very low shutter speed? If not then will stacking multiple images work?
mount intro with rawk!!! doesnt get much better \m/
This reminded of the video where these guys had a quench edge hd 8 on an eq8r pro and forgot to lock the mount and when tried balancing in the scope it fell and smashed. It was brutal
I literally just crushed my knuckle while cleaning my SVP GoTo. Can't wait for this mount to show up.
I got mine in July. By optimising PHD2, I progressively brought the guiding total RMS error from slightly below 1 arc second, which is good, to around 0.2 arc second which is insane. With good polar alignement and in good seeing conditions, registration in Pixinsight of 3 minutes frames shows that there is only a 1 pixel difference between them. And it can carry my C8 for deep sky imaging with ease. This mount just rocks !
My guess about your equipment: you will use the AM5 for nomad astrophotography and put your 10 micron in a dark site to perform remote acquisitions. Since that's the whole point of having a 10 micron ;-)
Wow, 0.2 is impressive, that is the best the 10Micron could achieve so far (0.20). I'll try to optimize the guiding and see how low the AM5 can go. And good guess :D
Hi Damien. IMHO, those are extremely good results, especially when compared with the best results I have read/heard from other AM5 users!👍👍 If you don't mind, I have some quick questions: Are you using the tripod that ZWO provides with the mount? Did you employ an off-axis guider to get those results? At what focal length are you guiding? How frequently is your guider making corrections? Every 0.5 second? Every 1 second? What is the 'periodic error' of your AM5 (as given on the AM5 spec sheet that ZWO provides)? Thanks!🙂p.s. You should consider making a CZcams video describing the process you used to optimize your AM5. I am sure that it would become very popular! 👍
@@derekbaker3279 Hello
- I get these results with an extremely light setup: a Tak60, with ZWO’s guidescope and a 2600MC Pro. It weights around 3 kg. I must precise that the precision in guiding seems to be significantly dependent on the load of the mount: a friend who used it with a 94 EDPH (5 kg) got a precision of .5”, and with the Edge HD8 and all the guiding equipment associated (10 kg) I am at around 1”
- I am using the provided tripod. Feedback I saw on youtube and in FB however do not advise using it for heavier loads and indeed with the C8 it clearly seems to reach its limits. I even think its flex may have contributed to the degraded guiding I got with this scope.
As for the guiding equipment, I generally use a ZWO 120 MM with a Baader UHC filter (to reduce athmospheric turbulences), with corrections every 1 second. It is not advised to go below 1 second and my tests at this frequency led to worst guiding. I also used a 200mm guidescope from TeleskopService, with similar results.
Hope I could answer your questions
Hi,can this mount use with the simply Canon camera and for exp. Samyang 135mm lens?
Do you think this mount would support an old 10" starfinder OTA with the counterweight?. I have been eyeing this mount for a while.
Thanks for the video! My AM5 has arrived, and my TC40 is due on Tuesday. I'm currently using an EQ6R so I'm looking forward to limiting my weightlifting exercise to the gym. :-) I'm wondering a little bit about the light weight of the TC40, but will put my Jackery-style battery in the TC40's sling and hopefully that will be sufficiently stable. Clear skies!
Good idea to put the battery on there, it will be stable for sure
I need to get me one of these, which it was a bit cheaper. AM3 is cheaper but its too small for me.
Thanks for the review. Always great to see a product test from folks who have thoroughly used the product and know its benefits over the other choices. But I’m curious - why is mounting the ASIair on the side bracket not recommended. I would have assumed that’s exactly what it’s for. Do the electronics in the mount interfere with the Air’s signal? Thanks. Clear skies!
Thanks! For the ASIAir, not 100% sure, but someone commented on a previous video that ZWO now recommends against it so we thought of mentioning it. I wonder if it can hit the mount head when slewed near the horizon
I haave some doubts about the AM5: imagine a hard wind comes suddenly... does the ma5 could stand and resist the wind compared to the Orion ? What is the mount fall of from the telescope side ?
Do you think this mount would work well with the Radian Telescopes carbon fiber tripod instead of having to buy the ZWO T40?
What happened with MyT and especially 10 micron mounts? You have advertised it as “forever “ mount.
Just got my AM5 yesterday after waiting 2 months. Still waiting on an ASIAIR pro. It would be good to see what you have been able to do with only a laptop connected wirelessly to the hand controller.
With the laptop, once connected to the mount I just imaged as I would with any other mount, no issues
Didn't you guys have a 10 MIcron mount? Also, I swear I remember you using a Paramount MyT at one point...
These harmonic drive mounts are certainly intriguing. I keep eyeing them. I like my CEM40 because it's portable (as far as typical mounts are concerned), but these are another level!
The MyT was a loaner for a review, the 10Micron yes, it's the most impressive mount ever, but we have a big update about this in a video coming up in 2 weeks from now :D
@@GalacticHunter ahh… I knew I wasn’t imagining things 😂. Will be looking forward to that upcoming video!
I am testing one right now too... So far I love it! Anybody interested in buying a CEM40 from me? ;-)
ZWO recommends not placing the ASI AIR on the side of the mount as the USB connections can impact the mount.
If they build a version for bigger Scopes then its a winner, but for a newty it doesnt work.
Not to sound harsh or anything, but am5 is literally the inferior choice in China rn. There’s this new mount called UMi harmonic mount and it delivers a much better guiding performance with less money, like 700 bucks cheaper. :) anyway great vid!
Got a link?
You think that AM5 will last as long as that Atlas, seriously doubt that.
Originally, harmonic/strain wave gear systems were designed for robotics, especially for the manufacturing sector, where robotic arms have to carry heavy loads and place them precisely in place. In fact, Rainbow Astro, which makes a couple of highly-regarded harmonic mounts, was started by the owners of a company that makes high-end harmonic drives for the robotics industry, and those owners happen to be amateur astronomers. So, assuming that the ZWO has sourced their harmonic drives for the AM5 from the same manufacturers that make drives for the robotics industry, the gearing systems should be extremely durable & they should require very little maintainance. Having said that, it is hard to know if the electronics & other mechanical parts in the mount will be highly durable & reliable, although I think that ZWO does have a pretty good reputation with nearly all of its products.
Yes.
Costs more 😒 😣
Ok THIS time I’m going to focus on the technical details and not how charming his wife is. Darn it…
15 seconds in: "oh, I need that!"
Sees price:"...nah, actually I don't"