ZWO AM5 Mount Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- I'm very impressed by the ZWO AM5 mount. It is lightweight, doesn't require any counterweight, and guides well below 1 arcsecond per pixel, with PHD2 multi-star guiding set at one second. The ASI ASCOM driver works perfectly and connects the AM5 to your favorite astrophotography software. As it is one of the cheapest harmonic drive mounts available at this point in time, I'm sure the ZWO AM5 will be loved by many astrophotographers who are looking forward to avoiding chronic back pain while still getting round stars. Let me know what you think!
The ZWO AM5 Mount is available here*:
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Link to overview video about Harmonic Drive Mounts:
• Best Harmonic Drive Mo...
Music (Artlist.io):
Fabien Fustinoni - In love with Emi
Ikoliks - Technological Revolution
Ziv Morgan - Elastic Vibe
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0:00 Introduction
1:16 Harmonic Drive Mount Revolution
3:50 ZWO AM5 - Review
11:29 Conclusion - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Got it a couple of months ago, and I can't imagine going back to something like HEQ-5 or EQ-6. I mean, the entire setup fits in my cars trunk, and there is still plenty of room for regular luggage. My total RMS, out of the box with default settings on ASIair Plus was around 0.5 and with some tweaking I have it at 0.3. What an awesome mount.
Glad to hear you approve of the AM5! I’ve been using mine on an AVX tripod from my balcony in Leiden on the few precious clear nights we’ve had since January. It easily handles my Redcat 71. And, though I was tempted to use a counterweight just for peace of mind with my Celestron 9.25 with a fairly substantial imaging train, extending the tripod legs has enabled the AM5 to slew that payload around with completely reliable tracking without one. Compared to the costlier Pegasus, iOptron and Rainbow Astro harmonic drive mounts, even when they include Renshaw encoders, I’ve so far found the much more affordable AM5 totally satisfactory and easy to use. I even positively like the simple joystick hand controller. They’d have to build an exceptionally brilliant classical belt drive mount to even tempt me to go back from strainwave gear mounts now. Clear skies! (In The Netherlands, please, please clear skies!!!)
Hi Wido, a toast for your speedy recovery! I have enjoyed my AM5 and TEC40 tremendously. For ten plus years, I have suffered through the hauling around of a Losmandy G11 with the HD tripod. It's a great mount but it can certainly dampen one's enthusiasm for setting up. The new gear is a blessing. My back loves it. But more importantly, at 76, the AM5 has added years to my love of this hobby. Best wishes from your friends in Sacramento!
Hi David, how are you? I'm one of the last persons to get covid, hehe. Yes, I was really surprised what that little mount can do for us! Definitely a game changer for the senior astrolovers! Best wishes to you and Patty! Are you planning your next cruise?
Great video,Aldo, I have held off getting motorised drives till now due to their bulk and weight ,this looks like just what I need.
Best Wishes for a Speedy recovery,thank you.
Thanks!
Ugh, so sorry to hear about your bout with Covid, Wido! Best wishes for a speedy recovery! Been using the AM5 since January and I really love it! Although I've been doing most of my image this winter at home, it's a pleasure to set up on the side of my house. Polar Alignment is a breeze and I've been getting PA error below 30" every time (usually below 15"). I use the AM5 and TEC40 with an Askar 107PHQ (and the 200mm pier) and it works perfectly, and I've most recently been getting guiding between 0.6" and 0.8" sec total RMS error. During windy conditions, if I'm not using a battery or two, I put an extra weight (maybe 7-11lbs) in one of my two tripod hammocks and the tripod is much sturdier (and survives a kick a little better). I'm really very happy with it! Great review, Wido! Thank you.
Hi Greg, thanks! And great to hear you're also enjoying the mount. Yep, a counterweight in the hammock might do the trick, tx and clear skies!
Thank you for your review. Pleased you mentioned the ascom driver. Good to hear it works well. Also happy to hear it handled the Edge HD8 scope as that’s my biggest scope both for weight and focal length. I did think it might struggle even with the reducer but apparently not. Ordered mine and sadly have a wait of about a month but looking forward to trying it. Clear skies.
i have the AM5 mount but I have not used it because of clouds and cold weather. So far I am very impressed with mount and I love the portability of it so I can take it anywhere.
Thanks Paul! Great to hear you like the mount. Let's hope for better skies in April!
Might be my forever mount because how light weightit is. On a good seeing night, with a 20lbs setup, I get as low at .29 to .50 rms. On windy nights, between. 6 and 1 rms.
Great to hear! Clear skies.
I had the same experience. I hit the tripod with EWF. My solution was to add pler. However I love AM5. I have also HEQ-5 but our relationship is quite cold after I got AM5 :D
Lol, enjoy 😉
Cuiv found out that wind is an issue for this lightweight mount, but he had his fun with this mount, too.
I didn't have any issues with wind, but you can always add a counterweight or use the pins on the tc40 to pin the mount to the ground.
Excellent video. Think I will get one. I did hear a few days ago that the AM5 doesn’t handle meridian flips. Probably a firmware update is needed
Hi Craig, I didn't experience any issues regarding the meridian flip, but I was using sequence generator pro. I'll check with ZWO, clear skies!
Hey Wido. I got my AM5 at exactly the same time and had exactly the same weather here in Amsterdam. Really messed with live testing. But I love it! I agree with almost everything you say. I can't recommend the TC40 with challenging payloads though. My 12.5kg f/7 APO vibrates badly on it (whatever you do to mitigate). Wind (even slight gusts), ground vibrations, and focus and PA are all unhappy events. A 'fat' CAT (up to 8") or a shorter tube refractor under f/6 4" will be about the 'sensible' limit for the TC40. Carbon just has poor damping characteristics (too rigid, no inertial mass). Lucky for me the EQ6 tripod can easily be modified to take the PE200 pier extension. With the AM5 on top (without counterweights but tripod legs extended about 1 foot against toppling) it makes a rock solid platform that has at last given me very good results (on the one night that has been clear since I got it all sorted). The rig is still 20kg lighter than when it is on the EQ6. That EQ6 tripod (at 8.5kg) is in practice actually LIGHTER than the TC40, because while the TC40 is just 2.5kg, it needs at least 10kg ballast to have any chance (and it still vibrates with long tube refractors). So now I have a TC40 crying out for a little grab and go to match it! Don't you just hate it when they say something can carry 50kg but it can't usefully be part of a drive for even a quarter of that weight claim, (unless it comes in a compact folded lightpath format).
Hi there, thanks for the feedback! I tested the TC40 with my 8" Edge HD + 80/480mm APO and didn't experience any issues, but I had a couple of quiet nights with winds at max. Beaufort 3. I'll keep on testing to see what comes up. There's always an option to add counterweights, but I really liked the fact that it tracked well without them :-). Hopefully we'll get better skies in April!
@@AstroForumSpace Yea Wido, better skies in April gets my vote!! It bugs me a bit when I see PHQ130's on AM5's on youtube etc. and a claim of 50kg carry capacity. But I think that with the shape and weight balance of catadioptric systems like yours they wont be so susceptible to vibrating, so the need for the tripod to damp out the trilling will be avoided - even when they are near the weight limits.
In reality I think the issue that I had hurts most with a heavy lump of triplet glass at the very end of a long (thinnish) tube, and/or with the heavy counterweight at the end of a long a bar that is attached to a thin plate by a single threaded point.
Both of these design factors make classic compound pendulums that can have a strong tendency to 'ring' at a particular natural frequency. It's the job of the tripod to soak this up. Counter intuitively it needs some flexibility to do that and some heft (inertial mass). A wooden tripod pobably has the best chances here, whereas carbon fiber is pretty much the worst material there is for damping.
My rig just buzzed at a finger tap from first test assembly, and when I eventually took it under the stars, it made little saturn shaped patterns of the star images (with a filter and a ~5 sec exposure). I put a losmandy dovetail on, upgraded to flat tripod feet, and added 10kg of ballast as mitigation and tried to convince myself that this had helped.
I eventually fixed the problem completely by using the EQ6 tripod without the counterweight. I will be in a position to definitively reject the TC40 and finger it as the culprit and source of all these issues if and when I get another chance to confirm on the EQ6 tripod that the counterweight anchor point is innocent of blame (because that design looks suspect to me too). Either or both could be involved.
Guiding and tracking of the AM5 has been excellent throughout. I even got one good horsehead image on the TC40 (with all the miigations in place on a still night by keeping distant from the telescope - and after spending twice as long on PA and focus).
So it can work, but the whole experience was awful, and on a knife edge throughout. It just made me hate the dealer for being a jerk about forcing a fight over the legality or otherwise of their return policy, instead of respecting (and valuing) a client who just made a >3K purchase.
I'm going to keep the TC40 for a nice grab-and-go but I'm a bit scared that if I do that too soon and too well, then I won't use the 130 APO at all any more.
Hey Wido, that's a long time ago. Nice gear and good to hear your review of the AM5.
This mount is usefull when you go on vacation. Do you make a video about your Asiair plus?
Thanks Stefan! Thanks, yes, I'm planning on making a video but the skies in The Netherlands are not cooperating at the moment.
@@AstroForumSpace I agree. Ik wacht ook op een clear sky.
Thanks so much Wido. Glad to see your Edge worked fine. I will be getting the am5 and asi air to use with my 8se. What do you recommend for a guide scope and cam for this setup. Thanks again. Get better. Clear skies.
Hi Perry, thanks! I stopped looking at off-axis guiding solutions as I'm getting round stars, even when using my small 50/250mm guidescope wit the asi120.
Very nice.
If i could have one request id love to see how it performs with counterweights down the line. With the same set of gear. Curious if its possible to squeeze out more accuracy or not :)
Yep, I'll add a counterweight and will compare guiding results, thanks!
Thanks for the review! Any drawbacks for visual use?
Hi Ron, it's a lightweight and compact mount so perfect to take with you to a dark sky site. You can also put it in alt az if you don't like polar alignment. You do need to ne careful not to bumb into the tripod legs and move the mount. But so far I like the am5 a lot!
@@AstroForumSpace Thank you!
What camera are you using with the Edge HD? Curious your pixel scale, and if you're able to get tracking RMS under that.
I'm at .55 arcsec per pixel with my asi1600mm pro and edge hd 8 inch with .7 reducer. My guiding is about .5 to .7, but astronomical seeing is mostly above 1 arcsec so no issues there.
How are you mounting that camera to the telescope? I'm not able to mount my asi 678 mc to the telescope.
When shooting at 1500+mm, which pixelpitch where you at there?
I used my ASI1600MM with the .7 reducer on my Edge HD 8", so that's a focal length of about 1420mm at about 0.5 arcsec p/pixel.
Aaaaaah, our famous dutch skies. Even the 17th century painters loved them. I think this muck has endured for too long now
Explains why you make your vacations in the Sauerland - only need to adjust to the hills, but not much to the weather. ;-)
@@Astrofrankyou are either clairvoyant or you know me. How did you know I sometimes go to the Sauerland
@@AncalimeNL Clairvoyant (to people not knowing the Sauerland: I am not, in fact, my comment was general about people from The Netherlands)
@@Astrofrank in other words, you made an educated guess, and you guessed right. Yr dutch? Only dutch ppl are ever right on the internet, that's why i follow Wido
@@AncalimeNL I made a comment on people from the Netherlands, not specifically on you as a person. ;-)
Fun fact: As a Sauerländer (now living in Bavaria), I am a bit jealous that the highest mountain in the Kingdom of the Netherlands is higher than the highest mountain in the Sauerland. But the former is in the Caribbean …
Wido, when I re-tighten the Alz/Az or Eq screws after PA, does it throw it off a little?
That could be the case, but the change would be small.
You are not supposed to mount an asiair on the side of the AM5 mount, based on the latest ZWO advisory.
Tx for the advice. I'll mount it on the telescope.
i started doing aviation photography because i got bored of the clouds, and it isn't as fun as astrophotography.
Let's hope for better skies in April, Vic!
? you had covid 5 months ago? did you get boosters or something? lol