Thanks for another informative video! I also have the Redcat 51 and ZWO 533 MC Pro. I was watching your video this morning and planning to buy the AM5. My husband took me out to breakfast and told me that he had bought the AM5 for me a few days before. He was planning to surprise me when it was delivered next week but decided to tell me early! What an incredible surprise!
This is by far one of the best reviews I’ve seen of the AM5. I have owned my AM5 for approximately four months now. I love it very much and it works great with both of my telescopes. Thank you
Sarah - Still researching. I've discovered OAGs, leaning toward celestron to go with edge hd 9.25. My first question is about filter wheels. I understand the potential need when used with a monochrome camera. So, with a color camera, is a filter wheel ever needed? Would a single filter slot be more useful? I'm also learning about filters other than RGB. Also, Edgehd 9.25 mounted on the AM5. Should work, right? One more, camera sensor, square or not? ASI294MC? Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.
Hey John, thanks for the great questions. With a one-shot-color camera, I would opt for a single filter slot adapter of some kind instead of a filter wheel. Unless you wanted to be able to cycle between, say, a dual narrowband filter, and then a quad band, and then a dark filter for taking darks. I don't see this ever, but hey! Totally up to you. As far as the EdgeHD 9.25 with the AM5, I've seen folks use them together with apparently decent tracking and guiding for longer exposures. But again, that is all anectdoal and I can't speak from personal experience. You would definitely be pushing the AM5 with that long of focal length for DSO imaging. Regarding camera sensors: I don't mind the square sensor with the ASI533MC, although not everyone is a fan. I'm not sure how the seeing conditions are at your main imaging location, but sampling is something to consider when pairing optics with a camera sensor/ pixel size. That's what I would assess the most. You can use RC Astro's MTF tool to do that here: www.rc-astro.com/mtf-analyzer/ I hope this helps! Cheers
What I like about this mount is its tight mechanical tolerances, and it can/should be part of a system. I learned a long time ago the advantages of system level hardware design. Operation and maintenance. You pack so much detail in your videos that, as a newbe, I have to occasionally pause and ask myself, what did she just say. Your knowledge base is extensive and impressive. Thank you, and keep the camera's rolling.
I agree with you, it makes a considerable difference. Thanks also for your feedback regarding my videos in general. It's helpful hearing from someone who is newer in the field. Many thanks again!
Well done review. I am an astrophotographer that's been looking for a heavier mount and your review was excellent. I am leaning heavily towards the AM5. Also, thank for not editing out all of the little "fumbles" here and there in the video. Delivered more like a conversation rather than a movie and not sterile... good to see for a change. I just found your channel and I think I will subscribe. Thank you for the review!
Thank you, I'm glad you found this review helpful. I've been using the AM5 for a year now and still love it for a range of scope sizes. Also, thank you for the kind words regarding the fumbles. I've been working on those, but appreciate your positive feedback! Wishing you all the best -Sarah
Excellent and thorough review. The AM5 is definitely on my list for replacing my CEM60 which I am currently using with the Askar 65PHQ so having a lighter mount for this lighter telescope setup would make my back happy.
Thank you, Logan! The AM5 is truly a back lifesaver. When you pick it up, you're almost expecting it to be really heavy (my muscle memory from setting up/ tearing down past rigs setting in), but then am pleasantly surprised/ reminded of how lightweight it is. It's pretty awesome/ surreal. Hope you're well!
I've had this mount since last fall and it's just been the best for me. I don't have any 'scope over 14 lbs. so it's ideal. I need to travel to a dark sky site to use it, so I value the light and portable form factor.
I’ve done it! I’ve jumped into this hobby and ordered a TS-Optics 8” Newtonian and the AM5. Can’t wait 👏 I hope I’ve ordered all necessary bits, adapters and stuff.
Been using this mount for quite some time with my GT-71, absolutely love it, especially the portability part. Absolutely love your review & tutorials !
I have been using this mount with an Askar FRA 400 and a OAG-L. My guiding total error has been consistently under 0.5 RMS. I will be trying to put an AT130EDT refractor on it with a payload of roughly 30lbs. Wish me luck!
Superb review of the mount, great use of the scopes show the capacity and set up Nice unbiased feel to it even though a Zwo user..good videos, best wishes
G'day Sarah - Patreon Dan here. I am looking at upgrading and future-proofing my mount - and I think this one you reviewed actually suits. Like you, I really enjoy the ZWO eco-system so this makes perfect sense. Of course, all of this gear I am buying slowly but surely as it is very expensive (Oz prices get a significant hike). Appreciate the review and cheers from across the pond.
Hey Dan! I can't recommend the AM5 enough. I've been testing/ using it for almost a year now and have had solid results with it. I definitely understand the pace of purchases though. I think you've set your eye on a good choice, especially for wide-field, mid-size telescopes. Thanks for all your support and cheers to you. Wishing you all the best and please let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help.
Well done with your overview. You hit on some points I missed in mine. But that helps us all as a community getting in all of the points I guess. Adding the pier was *chef's kiss* ... One of my local club members has the AM5 and the pier and he swears at to how much of a lifesaver it is for preventing everything from running into itself. Clear skies, Sarah!
Thank you! I just finished watching your unboxing, first light, and AM5 set up videos and you covered a ton. The pier extension has been an awesome addition and the fact that it isn't heavy is really nice. I'm tempted to get the pier extension rods and try those out, too. Cheers!
Excellent review. I’m currently using an Orion Atlas II. It’s a real monster to setup. I’ve been eyeballing this mount for a while. It was exciting to see your take on it. I’ve been following you for a while. I really appreciate your opinion and style. I watched the hobby explode with new talent. I’m a bit of a fossil lol. You have a very sensical approach and covered all the bases. Nice job. Channels like yours are invaluable to the community. Your progress over such a short time suggests you crunch information like a boss. Keep it up. Clear skies.
Not the least bit surprised that you are a fan of this mount and the ZWO ecosystem. I started my astrophotography journey last October and had no interest in having to cobble together components and find separate software to run each element or manually polar align and manually focus. This ecosystem has arrived at just the right time for me too. Having this much automation/integration of components does not diminish the experience in the least - it just removes some of the more mundane tasks that take time away from actual imaging. Thanks for your review.
You and I are 100% on the same page. There are enough hurdles getting into astrophotography as it is, and the ecosystem really helps to lower several barriers to entry of this hobby. Thanks for stopping by and for your response here. Cheers!
I love mine. Replaced and Celestron AVX and the weight reduction has made such a big difference. I'm an Apt dweller and have to schlep all my gear to a friend's rooftop and now it's so easy to grab and go and be setup quickly.
I've seen a lot of good things come out of these mounts- A few folks in my club have them and have had good results with an ASIAir. I've heard that there are issues with the ASCOM driver so I think I'm going to hold off on getting on board with this for now. Thanks for the review!
Thanks, Dennis! Glad to hear they’ve had good results with the ASIAir. Although curious about the ASCOM issues and whether ZWO can fix those issues via firmware updates.
Good overall review of the mount. Thanks for sharing. FYI- I've gotten down to .29rms recently by using pec in phd2, 10lbs weight in the mesh basket, 1sec subs tracking with 25/25 aggressiveness and vibration suppression pads.
@@goodboogie In PHD2, select 🧠, go to algorithms and right ascension, select ‘Predictive Pec’ everything auto. In declination ‘resist switch’ all auto. Run calibration when roughly on target, then plate solve to target. I’ve gotten down to .23rms this week on clear cool night in bortle 5000 skies….lol. FYi- u can’t train these mounts because it’s different every time, just let the pec run.
Yay! I'm glad our paths have crossed. Thanks so much for subscribing and for your support. I'm excited to see what's to come for the astronomy/ space community!
one of the best channels for astro photography, this woman knows her stuff and is very on the point, no uneccessery bs, just all we need to take amaizing photos. love it!
Great review Sarah! Looks like the performance of these is on par with the EQ6 but at a much lighter weight. My EQ6's stay outside permanently... if I had to drag them out each night I'd have a lot less data 🤣 CS!
Sarah, thanks for your review. I plan to get the AM5 and use the ASIAir. Really looking forward to getting out with the light weight set up. For now, at least, all imaging will be nikon Z based until I select a dedicated astro camera. As someone else implied, too many high $ hobbies! Cheers!
Thanks for stopping by, Kyle. The AM5 and the ASIAir work seamlessly together - I love both! I've heard great things about the Nikon Z though. The good news is, is that there will always be awesome gear out there to choose from when you're ready. Always nice when you can purchase secondhand as well. I've had good experiences on that front which helps with the $ side of things :'] Cheers!
I've paired my AM5 with 14mm, 250mm, and 714mm focal lengths. It has worked great with all of them. I am curious about adding a C8 to the mix for planetary work.
Great review Sarah. I bought my AM5 in January to save my back from the 18kg EQ6 mount head (which has become an issue for me as I get older). The 110 you showed is near the limit for refractors on the TC40. With my 130APO I had to move the AM5/PE200 over to my EQ6 tripod. That was an easy fix (for me) as I had the tripod already and just had to order some 3/8" rod and knobs. I did get OK tracking (and a decent horsehead photo) with the TC40 but it was just a nasty experience with an obstrusive vibration slowing down PA and focus and ruling out sessions even slightly windy conditions. I also need to touch and do manual focus when I do planets and lunar photography so vibes that don't damp out quick are just not OK. On the up side, planetary target acquisition at long focal lengths is where the AM5 hand-controller wins out over the EQ6. A HC will let you use a flip mirror crosswire and on the AM5 its just plug-and-play, whereas the skywatcher synscan HC needs date time lat long input and a star alignment to get started. But the main thing is you don't want to spend top dollar just to be annoyed with vibrations, so I'd recommend not using the TC40 to carry anything much above 4" in a refractor, or over 8" in catadioptric, and stay under 6" for a newtonian. Under that, TC40 PE160 AM5 makes a brilliant little grab and go platform. Above that look for a tripod or pier with some more heft in it, and use the PE200 option with the AM5.
Thanks for sharing your experience with me! I’m always curious to hear how others’ experiences have been so far with the AM5 and different mount/ pier extension combinations. I was surprised that I got good results on the Fossil Footprint Nebula despite pushing the TC40 combo and the subs being 5 and 10 minutes. Wind definitely is a doozy but that’s with any rig. Regarding the hand controller, I’m glad you really like it, especially for planetary. Thanks for stopping by! Cheers
Wow... lots of AM5 reviews all of a sudden. My own is still in production (since november)... Just takes a lot of time. I am going to buy mine. Love it.
g`day sarah ..they should of made these mounts 20 to 30 years ago.... it took the industry long enough to change to USB connectors( 2017 i think) ... i still think they should have a better hand controller with a screen with goto on board like most other older (worm drive) mounts bit of a step backwards in my book in that regard and more cost to the customer ... great review on this mount sarah cheers
I agree, they really should have made these sooner. It’s good to see the industry evolving like it has been and appears to be doing so more quickly. Cheers!
Great review, I got the AM5 for portability. It can’t do everything my Paramount MX can but it sure makes it easy with the application to control on my Ipad. ZWO did a great job with the AM5. I also have the WO 110 you have but I put a Moonlite focuser on it.
Thank you! That's awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying your AM5. It really is fantastic from a portability perspective and so nice with the wireless control. Also very cool that you have a WO 110! And very solid focuser choice, too. Cheers!
Correction: At 18:50, I meant to say that the RedCat 51 + ASI533MC Pro combo is undersampled, not oversampled. And I meant to say pixel size of the camera sensor, not the size of the camera sensor's dimensions itself.
Thanks for showing the fluorostar setup with it. I'm considering getting the AM5 as a "ultra-portable" mount myself. I have a tracker (Az-GTi in EQ mode) for my spacecat as well as an Avalon M-Zero that I use with my Takahashi FSQ85. I'm not really a fan of the tracker, and while the Avalon is very light, I want something a bit more portable for traveling with the spacecat, so I was wondering if the AM5 could possibly be used as a backup mount with the FSQ setup as well if needed. Seeing you use the Fluorostar-110 cleared up my doubts. It does however now make me wonder if I could put the C9.25 HD on it, but that's another story..
Hi there, I think the AM5 would be great for both the SpaceCat and the FSQ85! Regarding using the AM5 with the 9.25 HD, I've seen folks be successful with the combo for observational astronomy and for deep space imaging at the native focal length - which has surprised and impressed me!
@@SarahMathsAstro thanks for that info. C9.25 at native focal length for imaging with the AM5 does sound very impressive.. I would guess that's in a dome (or at least shielded from wind) and definitely with an upgraded tripod or pier as that seems to be the flimsiest part of the setup. I wouldn't even think of putting the C9.25 onto an AVX mount where I live (too windy most of the times) and that's even sold by Celestron that way. I just heard that ZWO will release a smaller version of the AM5 at NEAF (they put a teaser on their own twitter account a few days ago). I can imagine that this will shake up the sky tracker market quite a bit. I will wait a few days for their announcement, as maybe getting that smaller version for the spacecat may make more sense as it'd be even more portable. After all I am very happy with my M-Zero so I could keep that dedicated to the FSQ (and fully outside the ZWO ecosystem). Given that I have multiple CCD cameras and guidecams that are not from ZWO and can't use an asiair on those anyways, I'm not really commited to that ecosystem. Maybe just making the spacecat a "zwo-dedicated-setup" (and get a 2600mm or 2400mc or so) makes the most sense for portability and ease of use.
Hey, really appreciate posting raw subs instead of fully processed images! What was the exposure time for these? And at around what Bortle number are you imaging from? Thanks for the review 🙂
Hey there, glad the raw subs were helpful. I find them to be more helpful than fully processed images, too but apologies for not mentioning the exposure lengths. The subs of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Orion Nebula are 60 seconds and the Fossil Footprint Nebula sub is 5 minutes. All were taken at a gain of 100 with 1x1 Binning and dithering by 1 pixel. I would have taken longer exposures for Andromeda and Orion if I wasn't shooting in a Bortle 7/8 with a OSC without any filter (longer subs even with lower gain settings were pretty pointless with all the light pollution I'm in). But I easily could have pushed the RedCat and the AM5 for much longer subs especially given the focal length. Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for these very detailed videos. I'm considering buying and setting up a similar rig to what you have in this video. However i will be using this on a beach front balcony. I imagine the low light pollution over the ocean would make for some great visuals. My only worry is alignment and calibration. Obviously my balcony has 3 walls and a ceiling. Would i need a full 360 view of the sky and or a view straight up to calibrate this for tracking? Or can i just point at an object in the night sky and it will automatically track correctly?
Awesome. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, can you see Polaris from your location and if not, can you see the southern sky? Or are you in the southern hemisphere?
East coast US. I have no idea this is all new to me. I guess i can use an app to find out where its located. I know i have a great view of one of the dippers and Jupiter. I was going to buy via high point scientific but i see all of your affiliate links are for agena astro. I assume you prefer them over high point scientific?
You're already on the right track with your thinking - awesome! Using an app like Stellarium or SkySafari would be super helpful in determining whether Polaris is visible from the view of your balcony. Otherwise, if you can't see it, and if you plan to use the ASIAir Plus to control your imaging sessions, you can use one of its experimental features called "All-Sky" polar align which when enabled, will allow you to "polar align" your setup using something called a three star alignment calibration process instead of "traditional" polar alignment. Here's a video of how it works if you're interested: th-cam.com/video/QP2Z32e5ZcI/w-d-xo.html The ceiling of your balcony will be a challenge for a couple of reasons though: one being that you'll be pretty limited in how long you can image for since your target will have to be visible from the open view you do have, which makes sense. Second, it's generally recommended to image a target (DSO, planet, the Moon) when it's higher in the sky as opposed to closer to the horizon as there is less atmosphere for your telescope to image through so clearer images, more detailed data. It's not mandatory, but something to keep in mind as it still may be possible to do astrophotography from your balcony with a setup like this still. I just don't really know the dimensions of the balcony's layout or your latitude or which direction the open view is facing. I will say that I've managed to use the larger setup in this video on a balcony that has a ceiling before. The open part of the balcony I'm referring to faces northwest, so I could see Polaris. I would position my setup to face north to polar align, and then I would image targets that were visible in that direction during that time of year. So I had to plan ahead and factor in that I was only going to get at most, like 3 or 4 hours of data a night. 2 of which would be decent data since the data's quality degraded as the target got closer to the horizon. At a minimum though, I think you'd be able to do planetary, lunar, and solar from your balcony since those require short exposure times and little integration time. The big issue again being that planetary and lunar are best done when the targets are higher in the sky because atmospheric seeing conditions are more stable then. Having minimal atmospheric turbulence is crucial for planetary, lunar, and solar; less so for DSOs but still important. All of this, again, is just to help craft the best strategy for your situation. Very few people have a 360 degree view of the night sky. So what I'm sharing here is to help and hopefully not discourage. Regarding affiliate links, thanks for supporting the channel. It really means a lot! I am actually an affiliate of both High Point Scientific and Agena. If you prefer to use High Point Scientific, here is a general link that you can use if you'd like: bit.ly/48gPOu4 Thanks again and I hope this information was helpful! @@OpticalArtCrypto
I have an EQ35-M that I am still attempting to set up. While I like the idea of not having to use counterweights, the AM5 is over twice what I paid. However, I'd wager that if I used it, I'd like it as much as you do.
Thank you, Tom! I really like the AM5 from an accessibility perspective because not everyone can lug out a ton of heavy equipment. Heck, even if your body can do it, it’s not pleasant. Hope you’re well!
@@SarahMathsAstro defo sounds like I may need to invest in it soon, lol. Aye, all good here. App on App Store being tested as we speak!! Link heading your way soon :-)
Another great video Sarah! Thank You for all your hardwork and all the time that you put into your video's! I watch your video on the Star Adventurer and decided to buy one. I can't tell you how much fun I am having with it and also with my 400mm lens. My Orion nebula shots are very cool. Now I am thinking on buying the ZWO AM5 or the HEQ5. I have a 2 camera DLSR set up for Milky Way shots and it's way to heavy for the 2I pro. By chance, is the ASIAir Plus software with the AM5 easy enough to use for Milky way stack, multi row pano's? Lots of re-leveling the camera per shot. Thanks a bunch and cheers from the Springs!!
I'm so happy to hear that you've been enjoying the Star Adventurer and your 400mm lens! I bet your images are wonderful. I love Orion! Regarding your question about using the ASIAir with the AM5 for a Milky Way multi row pan, they both should do fine. I haven't attempted doing the myself, but I know of a couple folks who have and the Milky Way shots turn out great. I believe you would want to use the ASIAir with its mosaic feature that it has to create something like this. Hope this helps and hope all is well! Cheers!!
Oh my gosh, I am having sooo much fun with my Star Adventurer! Thanks again! Now that you have talked me into the AM5 and the ASIAir. By chance, are you affiliated with any companies or websites that you get a little contributions from? Not sure if you get anything from your links up about? Thanks again keep up the great video's!! @@SarahMathsAstro
Oh, wow! You're so kind and thoughtful, thank you! I am affiliated with Agena Astro, High Point Scientific, and Amazon. I'm not sure if you have a preference for one of those places over the other. I will provide general affiliate links for them below if you care to use any of them. I believe with Agena Astro, if you make a qualifying purchase within 10 days of using the link then I will get a commission and then for High Point Scientific, I believe the purchase window is 7 days. And then for Amazon, I think it's 24 hours. But again, no pressure at all. Any and all support is more than appreciated! I'm really excited for you! Agena Astro Affiliate Link: bit.ly/3qLxcSd High Point Scientific: bit.ly/48gPOu4 Amazon: amzn.to/4bbDehB
@@SarahMathsAstro Absolutey, you are Welcome! High Point Scientific! David over there is Amazing! Perfect, I will use your link in the next day or so. Thanks again for all your video's!!
Great review, I bought the Ioptron CEM40 a while back, I almost got the AM5 and now I wisht I would have. My CEM40 is a bit of a problem child, my two EQ6-R Pro's are worry free. I like worry free.
Thank you! Sorry to hear about the issues with the CEM40. I’ve always been a big fan of the EQ6-R Pro though, no problems with mine either. The AM5 is really nice for the portability though and haven’t had any issues with setting it up or using it with the ASIAir. No headaches are great!
Dear Sarah, many compliments for your knowledge and competences! Do you think that the AM5 would be enough for my Celestron 9.25 ? Thanks again , Daniele
I don't think I've heard a negative review or comment on those reviews regarding this mount. The only grumbling I heard with it was that they didn't work well with other software or cameras but I believe that has been fixed.
So I have AM5 used this seasson for the first time. I can't count exactly how long it was used but 5 months, 70% nights, 6h/night = 630h. I can say that this is another animal. I can say good bye to the Heq-5 and buy second AM5. It's one of the best machines I've ever had. Very reliable, precise, lightweight, but very powerful. I had issues with Heq-5 Pro in higher temperatures and some other problems but no problem with AM5.
Wow, it's awesome to hear that you've had such a wonderful experience with it after a considerable amount of time. The AM5 is quite the game changer. Cheers!
Great video and thanks for sharing! Great rigs and setups! One thing that confuses me on this, is how close do you have to be for the ASIAir polar alignment routine? I've used it on my other mounts, but I can assure it is "close" before I start using the mount's sight. Is that easy without a polar scope here? Seems like a see through sight would speed things up a bit.
When I do polar alignment, I attach a laser pointer to the side of the AM5, get the beam close to Polaris as a rough guide, and polar alignment is a breeze. Takes all of about 4-5 minutes on a bad night. I honestly don't miss breaking my back to look through a polar scope.
Thanks, Patrick! Greg had a great response/idea on the polar alignment question you had. I’ve never really used the polar scope on my EQ6-R Pro with the ASIAir and have just gotten polar alignment in the app as close to to 0 as possible and do the same with the AM5. My subs come out just fine so haven’t had issues with either mount. Hope that made sense.
Thank you for the review. Great video. I've been interested in this mounth for some time, but i will need to be very sure before i spend any money, because unfortunately there are also many people who don't speak very highly of this kind of mounth. I intend to buy it for logistical reasons, both to use it on the terrace, where the counterweight rod bothers me and also to have something light to carry around. At the moment I have a Newton 150/750, a RedCat 51 and an Astrograph 80/352 and so far I think there can be no problems, however I would like to sell the Astrograph 80/352 to get an 8 inch Cassegrain (like the Celestron Edge HD800), to be used in the galaxy season, but I'm not sure about the stability, since I should also put the guide and the Asi 2600MM camera in it. Anyway thanks again, you're good and beautiful !!! 😉
Thanks for stopping by! I’ve seen folks use the AM5 with longer focal lengths like the Edge 8 and they seem to work just fine but I think that’s really pushing it, personally.
Hi, from Texas! Will you be heading to our state for the upcoming total solar eclipse? In areas near the centerline the maximum shadow will be almost 4.5 minutes long!!
These are great for all your easy to guide short focal lengths. But that mountainous PE will not bode well for long FLs and long exposures. I’d suggest an 8”RC might be about the longest Id go with one. That said we had an 80mm frac with a herschel wedge pointed at the sun on the back of an am5 and it was a blast to use.
I've seen some folks push the AM5 beyond its limits, which has been really interesting. Overall though, it's a great mount and can't beat not breaking your back setting it up. Also, that's so cool you've been using it for solar! I've been wanting to get into solar observing/ imaging in general. Cheers!
@@SarahMathsAstro 100% agree. Along with all the other strain wave mounts it is a great technology for imaging. Will probably always require guiding, at least at FLs above 400ish. I want a portable direct drive mount with absolute encoders that would negate guiding. And as far as solar, my obsy partner bought the AM5 and that new ‘convertible’ Askar scope. Has both 60mm and 80mm tripl objective and with the wedge it was rock steady on the sun.
Nice review, Sarah! Were you using the default guide settings with your setups? (Sorry if missed this in the video if you talked about it.) You had some terrific guiding. I've been using my AM5 since January with my Askar 107PHQ (about 24 lbs with everything attached) and I absolutely love it! As you said, it's very competitively priced and an excellent value, IMHO. Stars are nice and round and it's super easy to use overall.
Thank you, Greg! I was using the default guide settings. Looking back, I should have tried different ones but I don’t really mess with my guiding to begin with. I’m glad you’ve been enjoying your AM5! Cheers!
@@SarahMathsAstro Actually, I think you were probably better off with the settings you had, Sarah. I was just curious. Fine tuning those settings is quite a lengthy process of trial and error, and trying to do multiple things at once is a bear. I still haven't gotten my guiding settings nailed down firmly, but the guiding is very good, so I save the tinkering for those nights I'm not able to do any serious imaging.
Hi Maged, I connect my guide camera directly to the ASIAir via USB instead of connecting my guide camera via cable to the guide port. Most people will tell you that it's always better to connect the guide camera to whatever acquisition device (your laptop or ASIAir, etc), instead of through the mount's ST-4 (for any mount, not just the AM5), as there can be more issues. Hope that makes sense.
@@SarahMathsAstro Thanks for letting me know, as I'm connecting the guide camera to the ASIAIR via both USB and ST4 cable to the mount. As I thought the ST4 cable was necessary to connect the guide camera to the mount. Now I'm gonna skip the ST4 cable connection 🙂
Excellent review but looks like you are making me spend money. LOL. One question about AM5 and ASIAir Plus - can you use it if you can't see Polaris? What has kept me from the equatorial mounts was this requirement. So I use the Celestron SkyAlign, which works okay, but as its a Alt-Az mount can't do any real astrophotography. But observing visually is still great. Thanks.
Thank you for the kind words, Stan! I find that the AM5 is a worthy purchase if that helps at all. I'm about a year in with the one I have, and I'm still quite pleased. The portability factor is a game changer. To answer your question though, yes, you can use the AM5 and the ASIAir Plus if you aren't able to see Polaris. The ASIAir software has an experimental feature called "All-Sky" Polar Alignment that allows you to polar align by performing a three story alignment. You'll need to turn the feature on in the app to enable it though. In the ASIAir app, it's located under the "I" button > Experimental Features > All-Sky Polar Alignment. Once enabled, you can return back to the Preview section, ensure everything is in focus, perform a successful plate solve, sync that to the mount, then move onto PA to do polar alignment. Astro Escape did a great video on how to orient your mount and perform the whole PA process here in this video: th-cam.com/video/J8Mm2x0vLlM/w-d-xo.html Here is Peter Zelinka's video on the topic as well: th-cam.com/video/QP2Z32e5ZcI/w-d-xo.html Hope this helps!
I'd like to know how well it works with an 8" EdgeHD Celestron. This might be a bit heavy depending on the setup? Can we minimize the hardware for portability?
I've seen folks use the AM5 with a 9.25 HD for deep space imaging at its native focal length with success. Which amazed me. If you use the 8” EdgeHD, I think it would be fine with superb PA and guiding, as well as a counterweight bar and counterweight. So as long as you’re good with those two additional pieces of equipment from a portability perspective.
I am considering getting this mount with the extension. I have a explorer Scientific ED 127 carbon fiber scope. It has 952mm focal length. I have a .7 reducer on it. I noticed that only 900mm focal length max is recommended. Is there anything I can do to improve this situation? Thank you.
Hey there, you are correct that the AM5 would be able to support the focal length of the ED 127 with the .7x focal reducer (666.4mm). Not sure if you're planning to guide, but I would recommend it with the AM5. This will improve the quality of your images. And just based on the physical length of your scope, it's good that you're going to be using the pier extension. I would probably just put a counterweight at the bottom of the TC40 tripod if that's the tripod you're planning to use. On the note of focal lengths of 900mm+ with the AM5, I recently have read of others being able to image with those longer focal lengths successfully. Although they did need to make adjustments to their guiding algorithm to accommodate (trial and error based on their specific setup so I'm not sure of the specifics). This could be a route to try if you're interested/ curious. I personally have not tried this though. Otherwise, I think you'd be good to go with what you mentioned above, especially with the pier extension and if you're guiding. Hope this helps!
The first optical train with the William Optics RedCat 51 and the ASI533MC weighs about ~10lbs, and the optical train with the William Optics FLT110 and ASI2600MM Pro weighs roughly ~21lbs.
Ok, silly question.... I am starting in that whole astronomy/astrophotography endeavor, looking to purchase a one and only rig and I want to make sure I understand this one point.... Can you use this mount completely manually for visual astronomy (as in no electricity/no controller at all) ?
Not a silly question at all. You will need electricity for this mount, regardless of the mode you use it in (i.e., Alt-Az for visual astronomy or EQ for imaging).
I have both the EQ6 and AM5 and love both of them. The EQ6 will have somewhat better guiding capabilities but will be heavier, and therefore, a less portable option (if that matters to you). The AM5 is great for portability since it's fairly light, but you'll need something like the ASIAir or a third-party electronic polar scope + software to polar align the mount since the AM5 doesn't have a built in polar scope like the EQ6 does. Payload capacity-wise, they're both about the same though. So the points I mentioned are what I would take into consideration if I had to choose between the two. Hope this helps!
The AM3 was already a Gamechanger from the SA GTI! And now, much more Payload for futureproofness, and way better cable management! 🥳 Greetings from the cloudy (did anybody expect anything else?!) Bavarian south in Germany
Thanks! I probably wouldn’t use the Edge HD 11” with the AM5 for astrophotography/ in equatorial mode. If I were to use the 11”, it would only be for observational astronomy/ in Alt/Az mode.
Hello. Do you offer remote private tutorials? I want to get started here but I really need some help. Literally just an hourly rate for zoom calls for your time. 🙏
Hi there, thank you for reaching out. I don’t currently do consults, however, a lot of companies that sell astro gear offer free 1-1 assistance. From picking gear out, to how to set it up, and how to use it. Check out High Point Scientific and Starizona.
Technically your presentation is very good. One thing that I would point out is that you don't need any filler syllables. Subjectively, you feel like your brain is way ahead of what your mouth can express so you add "um" or "uh". The viewer, on the other hand, will not notice unless you point it out with the affore mentioned interjections. Assume the audience can only perceive at around 1/10 the speed at which you can think and you're golden. 😎
Thanks, Jon! Really appreciate the feedback. My brain definitely goes very fast all the time, so not speaking quickly or saying “uh” or “uhm” is a conscious effort. Hoping for that to become unconscious in the future. Cheers!
Thanks for another informative video! I also have the Redcat 51 and ZWO 533 MC Pro. I was watching your video this morning and planning to buy the AM5. My husband took me out to breakfast and told me that he had bought the AM5 for me a few days before. He was planning to surprise me when it was delivered next week but decided to tell me early! What an incredible surprise!
Thank you, Janet! That is tremendously sweet of your husband! I’m very excited for you!!
This is by far one of the best reviews I’ve seen of the AM5. I have owned my AM5 for approximately four months now. I love it very much and it works great with both of my telescopes. Thank you
Thank you for the kind words. I'm happy to hear that you've been happy with your AM5 as well. Cheers
I just love this mount. It’s so small that it’s assembled in my house all the time making setup even quicker!
That's amazing!! It really does make a tremendous difference not having to lug out a ton of heavy equipment or break it all down.
Ohh the entire red setup with red cat really looks awesomeeeee!. Great video your production quality has improved a lot over time.
Thank you, Shrish!
Sarah! You're the best TH-camr out there making Astrophotography videos. Keep up the great work!!
Thank you so much!
Sarah - Still researching. I've discovered OAGs, leaning toward celestron to go with edge hd 9.25. My first question is about filter wheels. I understand the potential need when used with a monochrome camera. So, with a color camera, is a filter wheel ever needed? Would a single filter slot be more useful? I'm also learning about filters other than RGB. Also, Edgehd 9.25 mounted on the AM5. Should work, right? One more, camera sensor, square or not? ASI294MC? Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.
Hey John, thanks for the great questions.
With a one-shot-color camera, I would opt for a single filter slot adapter of some kind instead of a filter wheel. Unless you wanted to be able to cycle between, say, a dual narrowband filter, and then a quad band, and then a dark filter for taking darks. I don't see this ever, but hey! Totally up to you.
As far as the EdgeHD 9.25 with the AM5, I've seen folks use them together with apparently decent tracking and guiding for longer exposures. But again, that is all anectdoal and I can't speak from personal experience. You would definitely be pushing the AM5 with that long of focal length for DSO imaging.
Regarding camera sensors: I don't mind the square sensor with the ASI533MC, although not everyone is a fan. I'm not sure how the seeing conditions are at your main imaging location, but sampling is something to consider when pairing optics with a camera sensor/ pixel size. That's what I would assess the most. You can use RC Astro's MTF tool to do that here: www.rc-astro.com/mtf-analyzer/
I hope this helps! Cheers
What I like about this mount is its tight mechanical tolerances, and it can/should be part of a system. I learned a long time ago the advantages of system level hardware design. Operation and maintenance. You pack so much detail in your videos that, as a newbe, I have to occasionally pause and ask myself, what did she just say. Your knowledge base is extensive and impressive. Thank you, and keep the camera's rolling.
I agree with you, it makes a considerable difference. Thanks also for your feedback regarding my videos in general. It's helpful hearing from someone who is newer in the field. Many thanks again!
Well done review. I am an astrophotographer that's been looking for a heavier mount and your review was excellent. I am leaning heavily towards the AM5. Also, thank for not editing out all of the little "fumbles" here and there in the video. Delivered more like a conversation rather than a movie and not sterile... good to see for a change. I just found your channel and I think I will subscribe. Thank you for the review!
Thank you, I'm glad you found this review helpful. I've been using the AM5 for a year now and still love it for a range of scope sizes. Also, thank you for the kind words regarding the fumbles. I've been working on those, but appreciate your positive feedback! Wishing you all the best -Sarah
Excellent and thorough review. The AM5 is definitely on my list for replacing my CEM60 which I am currently using with the Askar 65PHQ so having a lighter mount for this lighter telescope setup would make my back happy.
Thank you, Logan! The AM5 is truly a back lifesaver. When you pick it up, you're almost expecting it to be really heavy (my muscle memory from setting up/ tearing down past rigs setting in), but then am pleasantly surprised/ reminded of how lightweight it is. It's pretty awesome/ surreal. Hope you're well!
I've had this mount since last fall and it's just been the best for me. I don't have any 'scope over 14 lbs. so it's ideal. I need to travel to a dark sky site to use it, so I value the light and portable form factor.
I’m happy to hear that you’ve been enjoying your AM5. I’ve been impressed with the load capacity and how it handles.
As a mobile unit with quality and corresponding listed price, this mount is unbeatable.
Couldn’t agree more.
This absolutely helped solidify my decision on what I’m choosing as I move from landscape to astrophotography. Thank you!
Awesome to hear and congrats on making the move! I'm very excited for you. Cheers!
I’ve done it! I’ve jumped into this hobby and ordered a TS-Optics 8” Newtonian and the AM5. Can’t wait 👏 I hope I’ve ordered all necessary bits, adapters and stuff.
Congrats on starting your astro journey and congrats on the new gear! I'm really excited for you! :)
Been using this mount for quite some time with my GT-71, absolutely love it, especially the portability part. Absolutely love your review & tutorials !
That's fantastic to hear, Alfred! What a great combo, too. Thank you also for the kind words! Really means a lot.
I have been using this mount with an Askar FRA 400 and a OAG-L. My guiding total error has been consistently under 0.5 RMS. I will be trying to put an AT130EDT refractor on it with a payload of roughly 30lbs. Wish me luck!
Wow, excellent guiding so far! I hope you have similar results with the new refractor. Cheers!
Superb review of the mount, great use of the scopes show the capacity and set up
Nice unbiased feel to it even though a Zwo user..good videos, best wishes
Thanks, Les. Appreciate it! Cheers.
G'day Sarah - Patreon Dan here. I am looking at upgrading and future-proofing my mount - and I think this one you reviewed actually suits. Like you, I really enjoy the ZWO eco-system so this makes perfect sense. Of course, all of this gear I am buying slowly but surely as it is very expensive (Oz prices get a significant hike). Appreciate the review and cheers from across the pond.
Hey Dan! I can't recommend the AM5 enough. I've been testing/ using it for almost a year now and have had solid results with it. I definitely understand the pace of purchases though. I think you've set your eye on a good choice, especially for wide-field, mid-size telescopes. Thanks for all your support and cheers to you. Wishing you all the best and please let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help.
Well done with your overview. You hit on some points I missed in mine. But that helps us all as a community getting in all of the points I guess. Adding the pier was *chef's kiss* ... One of my local club members has the AM5 and the pier and he swears at to how much of a lifesaver it is for preventing everything from running into itself. Clear skies, Sarah!
Thank you! I just finished watching your unboxing, first light, and AM5 set up videos and you covered a ton. The pier extension has been an awesome addition and the fact that it isn't heavy is really nice. I'm tempted to get the pier extension rods and try those out, too. Cheers!
Excellent review. I’m currently using an Orion Atlas II. It’s a real monster to setup. I’ve been eyeballing this mount for a while. It was exciting to see your take on it. I’ve been following you for a while. I really appreciate your opinion and style. I watched the hobby explode with new talent. I’m a bit of a fossil lol. You have a very sensical approach and covered all the bases. Nice job. Channels like yours are invaluable to the community. Your progress over such a short time suggests you crunch information like a boss. Keep it up. Clear skies.
Thank you, Garnett. I appreciate your support and kind words. Means a lot!
Not the least bit surprised that you are a fan of this mount and the ZWO ecosystem. I started my astrophotography journey last October and had no interest in having to cobble together components and find separate software to run each element or manually polar align and manually focus. This ecosystem has arrived at just the right time for me too. Having this much automation/integration of components does not diminish the experience in the least - it just removes some of the more mundane tasks that take time away from actual imaging. Thanks for your review.
You and I are 100% on the same page. There are enough hurdles getting into astrophotography as it is, and the ecosystem really helps to lower several barriers to entry of this hobby. Thanks for stopping by and for your response here. Cheers!
I love mine. Replaced and Celestron AVX and the weight reduction has made such a big difference. I'm an Apt dweller and have to schlep all my gear to a friend's rooftop and now it's so easy to grab and go and be setup quickly.
That's really great to hear, especially given the effort it takes just having to go somewhere else to even image.
I've seen a lot of good things come out of these mounts- A few folks in my club have them and have had good results with an ASIAir. I've heard that there are issues with the ASCOM driver so I think I'm going to hold off on getting on board with this for now. Thanks for the review!
Thanks, Dennis! Glad to hear they’ve had good results with the ASIAir. Although curious about the ASCOM issues and whether ZWO can fix those issues via firmware updates.
Good overall review of the mount. Thanks for sharing. FYI- I've gotten down to .29rms recently by using pec in phd2, 10lbs weight in the mesh basket, 1sec subs tracking with 25/25 aggressiveness and vibration suppression pads.
Thank you! That’s impressive. It’s wild the capabilities of these mounts.
Interesting. How long did you record in PHD to train the mount? If you don’t mind me asking.
@@goodboogie In PHD2, select 🧠, go to algorithms and right ascension, select ‘Predictive Pec’ everything auto. In declination ‘resist switch’ all auto. Run calibration when roughly on target, then plate solve to target. I’ve gotten down to .23rms this week on clear cool night in bortle 5000 skies….lol. FYi- u can’t train these mounts because it’s different every time, just let the pec run.
Hooray TH-cam algorithm! Found ya. Subscribed! Love the setup and review. Exciting times for astroimagers indeed.
Yay! I'm glad our paths have crossed. Thanks so much for subscribing and for your support. I'm excited to see what's to come for the astronomy/ space community!
I don't know much about astronomy or equipment but that William Optics setup is sick.
Thanks! :)
You’re doing a great job, taking great images. Hopefully you can continue to pass that knowledge along!
Thank you, that means a lot! More videos are on their way :)
I love it. Guiding is perfect with total RMS between 0.3-0.5
Amazing!
one of the best channels for astro photography, this woman knows her stuff and is very on the point, no uneccessery bs, just all we need to take amaizing photos. love it!
Thank you, Sebo! I really appreciate it and am glad you find the channel helpful :)
Great review Sarah! Looks like the performance of these is on par with the EQ6 but at a much lighter weight. My EQ6's stay outside permanently... if I had to drag them out each night I'd have a lot less data 🤣 CS!
Thank you! Yes, very much on par with the EQ6 but lighter. I hope to one day have your set up convenience though! What a dream :D
@@SarahMathsAstro When we were scouting out places to move to.. astrophotography was a major deciding factor (with in reason of course, lol).
Thanks for this detailed review. Have been on the fence over this but I think I’m sold now.
Thanks for taking the time to watch it. I really can't recommend it enough. Hope things are going well!
You answered a plethora of questions I had. Thank you!
Excellent, I'm happy to hear this. Thank you :)
been eyeing the am5 for a while now .. might have to pull the trigger on this one... my current eq 6r pro is heavy to move & setup.
It's a great mount and my back agrees, too!
Sarah, thanks for your review. I plan to get the AM5 and use the ASIAir. Really looking forward to getting out with the light weight set up. For now, at least, all imaging will be nikon Z based until I select a dedicated astro camera. As someone else implied, too many high $ hobbies! Cheers!
Thanks for stopping by, Kyle. The AM5 and the ASIAir work seamlessly together - I love both! I've heard great things about the Nikon Z though. The good news is, is that there will always be awesome gear out there to choose from when you're ready. Always nice when you can purchase secondhand as well. I've had good experiences on that front which helps with the $ side of things :'] Cheers!
thank you for the review i was looking at this setup but was skeptical, very informative
Thanks for taking the time to watch the review. I shared similar thoughts, but have been pleasantly surprised.
I've paired my AM5 with 14mm, 250mm, and 714mm focal lengths. It has worked great with all of them. I am curious about adding a C8 to the mix for planetary work.
Excellent combination! Glad to hear it's worked so well for you. The C8 would be just fine for planetary work!
Great review Sarah. I bought my AM5 in January to save my back from the 18kg EQ6 mount head (which has become an issue for me as I get older). The 110 you showed is near the limit for refractors on the TC40. With my 130APO I had to move the AM5/PE200 over to my EQ6 tripod. That was an easy fix (for me) as I had the tripod already and just had to order some 3/8" rod and knobs. I did get OK tracking (and a decent horsehead photo) with the TC40 but it was just a nasty experience with an obstrusive vibration slowing down PA and focus and ruling out sessions even slightly windy conditions. I also need to touch and do manual focus when I do planets and lunar photography so vibes that don't damp out quick are just not OK. On the up side, planetary target acquisition at long focal lengths is where the AM5 hand-controller wins out over the EQ6. A HC will let you use a flip mirror crosswire and on the AM5 its just plug-and-play, whereas the skywatcher synscan HC needs date time lat long input and a star alignment to get started. But the main thing is you don't want to spend top dollar just to be annoyed with vibrations, so I'd recommend not using the TC40 to carry anything much above 4" in a refractor, or over 8" in catadioptric, and stay under 6" for a newtonian. Under that, TC40 PE160 AM5 makes a brilliant little grab and go platform. Above that look for a tripod or pier with some more heft in it, and use the PE200 option with the AM5.
Thanks for sharing your experience with me! I’m always curious to hear how others’ experiences have been so far with the AM5 and different mount/ pier extension combinations. I was surprised that I got good results on the Fossil Footprint Nebula despite pushing the TC40 combo and the subs being 5 and 10 minutes. Wind definitely is a doozy but that’s with any rig. Regarding the hand controller, I’m glad you really like it, especially for planetary. Thanks for stopping by! Cheers
Awesome review of the AM5 and it was very helpful for a beginner like me. Thanks!!
Thanks, Ben! Glad this was helpful. Cheers!
Agreed, ZWO is a great way to go, much easier for us beginners.
Yes!
Wow... lots of AM5 reviews all of a sudden. My own is still in production (since november)... Just takes a lot of time. I am going to buy mine. Love it.
Very interesting that there’s been more reviews. It’s an awesome mount and I’m excited for you to get yours.
g`day sarah ..they should of made these mounts 20 to 30 years ago.... it took the industry long enough to change to USB connectors( 2017 i think) ... i still think they should have a better hand controller with a screen with goto on board like most other older (worm drive) mounts bit of a step backwards in my book in that regard and more cost to the customer ... great review on this mount sarah cheers
I agree, they really should have made these sooner. It’s good to see the industry evolving like it has been and appears to be doing so more quickly. Cheers!
Great review, I got the AM5 for portability. It can’t do everything my Paramount MX can but it sure makes it easy with the application to control on my Ipad. ZWO did a great job with the AM5. I also have the WO 110 you have but I put a Moonlite focuser on it.
Thank you! That's awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying your AM5. It really is fantastic from a portability perspective and so nice with the wireless control. Also very cool that you have a WO 110! And very solid focuser choice, too. Cheers!
Correction: At 18:50, I meant to say that the RedCat 51 + ASI533MC Pro combo is undersampled, not oversampled. And I meant to say pixel size of the camera sensor, not the size of the camera sensor's dimensions itself.
Thanks for showing the fluorostar setup with it. I'm considering getting the AM5 as a "ultra-portable" mount myself. I have a tracker (Az-GTi in EQ mode) for my spacecat as well as an Avalon M-Zero that I use with my Takahashi FSQ85. I'm not really a fan of the tracker, and while the Avalon is very light, I want something a bit more portable for traveling with the spacecat, so I was wondering if the AM5 could possibly be used as a backup mount with the FSQ setup as well if needed. Seeing you use the Fluorostar-110 cleared up my doubts. It does however now make me wonder if I could put the C9.25 HD on it, but that's another story..
Hi there, I think the AM5 would be great for both the SpaceCat and the FSQ85! Regarding using the AM5 with the 9.25 HD, I've seen folks be successful with the combo for observational astronomy and for deep space imaging at the native focal length - which has surprised and impressed me!
@@SarahMathsAstro thanks for that info. C9.25 at native focal length for imaging with the AM5 does sound very impressive.. I would guess that's in a dome (or at least shielded from wind) and definitely with an upgraded tripod or pier as that seems to be the flimsiest part of the setup. I wouldn't even think of putting the C9.25 onto an AVX mount where I live (too windy most of the times) and that's even sold by Celestron that way.
I just heard that ZWO will release a smaller version of the AM5 at NEAF (they put a teaser on their own twitter account a few days ago). I can imagine that this will shake up the sky tracker market quite a bit. I will wait a few days for their announcement, as maybe getting that smaller version for the spacecat may make more sense as it'd be even more portable. After all I am very happy with my M-Zero so I could keep that dedicated to the FSQ (and fully outside the ZWO ecosystem). Given that I have multiple CCD cameras and guidecams that are not from ZWO and can't use an asiair on those anyways, I'm not really commited to that ecosystem. Maybe just making the spacecat a "zwo-dedicated-setup" (and get a 2600mm or 2400mc or so) makes the most sense for portability and ease of use.
Hey, really appreciate posting raw subs instead of fully processed images! What was the exposure time for these? And at around what Bortle number are you imaging from? Thanks for the review 🙂
Hey there, glad the raw subs were helpful. I find them to be more helpful than fully processed images, too but apologies for not mentioning the exposure lengths. The subs of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Orion Nebula are 60 seconds and the Fossil Footprint Nebula sub is 5 minutes. All were taken at a gain of 100 with 1x1 Binning and dithering by 1 pixel. I would have taken longer exposures for Andromeda and Orion if I wasn't shooting in a Bortle 7/8 with a OSC without any filter (longer subs even with lower gain settings were pretty pointless with all the light pollution I'm in). But I easily could have pushed the RedCat and the AM5 for much longer subs especially given the focal length. Thanks for stopping by!
Enjoyed your review. Excellent job.
Thanks for taking the time to watch and thank you for your kind words.
Thank you for these very detailed videos. I'm considering buying and setting up a similar rig to what you have in this video. However i will be using this on a beach front balcony. I imagine the low light pollution over the ocean would make for some great visuals. My only worry is alignment and calibration. Obviously my balcony has 3 walls and a ceiling. Would i need a full 360 view of the sky and or a view straight up to calibrate this for tracking? Or can i just point at an object in the night sky and it will automatically track correctly?
Awesome. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, can you see Polaris from your location and if not, can you see the southern sky? Or are you in the southern hemisphere?
East coast US. I have no idea this is all new to me. I guess i can use an app to find out where its located. I know i have a great view of one of the dippers and Jupiter. I was going to buy via high point scientific but i see all of your affiliate links are for agena astro. I assume you prefer them over high point scientific?
You're already on the right track with your thinking - awesome! Using an app like Stellarium or SkySafari would be super helpful in determining whether Polaris is visible from the view of your balcony. Otherwise, if you can't see it, and if you plan to use the ASIAir Plus to control your imaging sessions, you can use one of its experimental features called "All-Sky" polar align which when enabled, will allow you to "polar align" your setup using something called a three star alignment calibration process instead of "traditional" polar alignment.
Here's a video of how it works if you're interested: th-cam.com/video/QP2Z32e5ZcI/w-d-xo.html
The ceiling of your balcony will be a challenge for a couple of reasons though: one being that you'll be pretty limited in how long you can image for since your target will have to be visible from the open view you do have, which makes sense. Second, it's generally recommended to image a target (DSO, planet, the Moon) when it's higher in the sky as opposed to closer to the horizon as there is less atmosphere for your telescope to image through so clearer images, more detailed data. It's not mandatory, but something to keep in mind as it still may be possible to do astrophotography from your balcony with a setup like this still. I just don't really know the dimensions of the balcony's layout or your latitude or which direction the open view is facing. I will say that I've managed to use the larger setup in this video on a balcony that has a ceiling before. The open part of the balcony I'm referring to faces northwest, so I could see Polaris. I would position my setup to face north to polar align, and then I would image targets that were visible in that direction during that time of year. So I had to plan ahead and factor in that I was only going to get at most, like 3 or 4 hours of data a night. 2 of which would be decent data since the data's quality degraded as the target got closer to the horizon.
At a minimum though, I think you'd be able to do planetary, lunar, and solar from your balcony since those require short exposure times and little integration time. The big issue again being that planetary and lunar are best done when the targets are higher in the sky because atmospheric seeing conditions are more stable then. Having minimal atmospheric turbulence is crucial for planetary, lunar, and solar; less so for DSOs but still important.
All of this, again, is just to help craft the best strategy for your situation. Very few people have a 360 degree view of the night sky. So what I'm sharing here is to help and hopefully not discourage.
Regarding affiliate links, thanks for supporting the channel. It really means a lot! I am actually an affiliate of both High Point Scientific and Agena. If you prefer to use High Point Scientific, here is a general link that you can use if you'd like: bit.ly/48gPOu4
Thanks again and I hope this information was helpful!
@@OpticalArtCrypto
@@SarahMathsAstro very helpful. Thank you!
@@OpticalArtCrypto happy to help!
Sarah - did you have to use the counterweight when you put the big boy train on? Great video!
Hey there! Nope, no counterweights for either of the telescopes shown. I probably could've with the 110, though!
I have an EQ35-M that I am still attempting to set up. While I like the idea of not having to use counterweights, the AM5 is over twice what I paid. However, I'd wager that if I used it, I'd like it as much as you do.
Understandable. It’s certainly a trade off.
Great Video! I wish I had watched it sooner - lots of good information.
Thanks, Pat!!
Great review, Sarah. Maybe when my back begins to give way, I’ll get this mounthead. My whole rig setup weighs about 20kg, LOL
Thank you, Tom! I really like the AM5 from an accessibility perspective because not everyone can lug out a ton of heavy equipment. Heck, even if your body can do it, it’s not pleasant. Hope you’re well!
@@SarahMathsAstro defo sounds like I may need to invest in it soon, lol. Aye, all good here. App on App Store being tested as we speak!! Link heading your way soon :-)
Another great video Sarah! Thank You for all your hardwork and all the time that you put into your video's! I watch your video on the Star Adventurer and decided to buy one. I can't tell you how much fun I am having with it and also with my 400mm lens. My Orion nebula shots are very cool. Now I am thinking on buying the ZWO AM5 or the HEQ5. I have a 2 camera DLSR set up for Milky Way shots and it's way to heavy for the 2I pro. By chance, is the ASIAir Plus software with the AM5 easy enough to use for Milky way stack, multi row pano's? Lots of re-leveling the camera per shot. Thanks a bunch and cheers from the Springs!!
I'm so happy to hear that you've been enjoying the Star Adventurer and your 400mm lens! I bet your images are wonderful. I love Orion! Regarding your question about using the ASIAir with the AM5 for a Milky Way multi row pan, they both should do fine. I haven't attempted doing the myself, but I know of a couple folks who have and the Milky Way shots turn out great. I believe you would want to use the ASIAir with its mosaic feature that it has to create something like this. Hope this helps and hope all is well! Cheers!!
Oh my gosh, I am having sooo much fun with my Star Adventurer! Thanks again! Now that you have talked me into the AM5 and the ASIAir. By chance, are you affiliated with any companies or websites that you get a little contributions from? Not sure if you get anything from your links up about? Thanks again keep up the great video's!! @@SarahMathsAstro
Oh, wow! You're so kind and thoughtful, thank you! I am affiliated with Agena Astro, High Point Scientific, and Amazon. I'm not sure if you have a preference for one of those places over the other. I will provide general affiliate links for them below if you care to use any of them. I believe with Agena Astro, if you make a qualifying purchase within 10 days of using the link then I will get a commission and then for High Point Scientific, I believe the purchase window is 7 days. And then for Amazon, I think it's 24 hours. But again, no pressure at all. Any and all support is more than appreciated! I'm really excited for you!
Agena Astro Affiliate Link: bit.ly/3qLxcSd
High Point Scientific: bit.ly/48gPOu4
Amazon: amzn.to/4bbDehB
@@SarahMathsAstro Absolutey, you are Welcome! High Point Scientific! David over there is Amazing! Perfect, I will use your link in the next day or so. Thanks again for all your video's!!
You're awesome!! Thank you so much!! :) and best of luck!!
Great review, I bought the Ioptron CEM40 a while back, I almost got the AM5 and now I wisht I would have. My CEM40 is a bit of a problem child, my two EQ6-R Pro's are worry free. I like worry free.
Thank you! Sorry to hear about the issues with the CEM40. I’ve always been a big fan of the EQ6-R Pro though, no problems with mine either. The AM5 is really nice for the portability though and haven’t had any issues with setting it up or using it with the ASIAir. No headaches are great!
Thanks for the video. I am new to telescopes and ur video help out. Thanks!!
That's awesome to hear!! :D
Dear Sarah, many compliments for your knowledge and competences! Do you think that the AM5 would be enough for my Celestron 9.25 ? Thanks again , Daniele
I don't think I've heard a negative review or comment on those reviews regarding this mount. The only grumbling I heard with it was that they didn't work well with other software or cameras but I believe that has been fixed.
It really is a fantastic piece of equipment. And regarding the compatibility, I also believe that they resolved many of those issues.
Nice video. was thinking about similar setup with ASI Air, if I don't get a permanent setup for EAA! Thanks
That’s awesome! Can’t recommend it more. So straightforward to use. Cheers
Very helpful review, many thanks!
Happy it helped. Thanks, Greg!
So I have AM5 used this seasson for the first time. I can't count exactly how long it was used but 5 months, 70% nights, 6h/night = 630h. I can say that this is another animal. I can say good bye to the Heq-5 and buy second AM5. It's one of the best machines I've ever had. Very reliable, precise, lightweight, but very powerful. I had issues with Heq-5 Pro in higher temperatures and some other problems but no problem with AM5.
Wow, it's awesome to hear that you've had such a wonderful experience with it after a considerable amount of time. The AM5 is quite the game changer. Cheers!
Excellent review, very thorough. Muy bueno 😉
Happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words as well.
Great video and thanks for sharing! Great rigs and setups! One thing that confuses me on this, is how close do you have to be for the ASIAir polar alignment routine? I've used it on my other mounts, but I can assure it is "close" before I start using the mount's sight. Is that easy without a polar scope here? Seems like a see through sight would speed things up a bit.
When I do polar alignment, I attach a laser pointer to the side of the AM5, get the beam close to Polaris as a rough guide, and polar alignment is a breeze. Takes all of about 4-5 minutes on a bad night. I honestly don't miss breaking my back to look through a polar scope.
Thanks, Patrick! Greg had a great response/idea on the polar alignment question you had. I’ve never really used the polar scope on my EQ6-R Pro with the ASIAir and have just gotten polar alignment in the app as close to to 0 as possible and do the same with the AM5. My subs come out just fine so haven’t had issues with either mount. Hope that made sense.
Nice review Sarah, you gained a sub from me. I keep looking at this mount
Thanks, Neil! I really appreciate it. This mount really is awesome.
Great video Sarah. Did you have any problems with meridian flips?
Thank you, Craig. No issues with meridian flips though.
Thank you for the review.
Great video.
I've been interested in this mounth for some time,
but i will need to be very sure before i spend any money,
because unfortunately there are also many people who don't speak very highly of this kind of mounth.
I intend to buy it for logistical reasons, both to use it on the terrace,
where the counterweight rod bothers me and also to have something light to carry around.
At the moment I have a Newton 150/750, a RedCat 51 and an Astrograph 80/352 and so far I think there can be no problems,
however I would like to sell the Astrograph 80/352 to get an 8 inch Cassegrain (like the Celestron Edge HD800),
to be used in the galaxy season, but I'm not sure about the stability, since I should also put the guide and the Asi 2600MM camera in it.
Anyway thanks again, you're good and beautiful !!! 😉
Thanks for stopping by! I’ve seen folks use the AM5 with longer focal lengths like the Edge 8 and they seem to work just fine but I think that’s really pushing it, personally.
thank you very much for this review. this Am5 is very interesting😊
Thanks for stopping by, Mirko! The AM5 is a great mount.
@@SarahMathsAstro 😊😊👏👏🙏🙏
Hi, from Texas! Will you be heading to our state for the upcoming total solar eclipse? In areas near the centerline the maximum shadow will be almost 4.5 minutes long!!
Hello! At the time of writing this, yes. We will see how the weather holds up though.
@@SarahMathsAstroKeeping my fingers crossed that the skies are cloud free on April 8th
I gotta save up for one now! Thanks! :)
They're totally worth it! :)
Thank you Mrs. Sarah!
Thanks for stopping by! Cheers
These are great for all your easy to guide short focal lengths. But that mountainous PE will not bode well for long FLs and long exposures. I’d suggest an 8”RC might be about the longest Id go with one. That said we had an 80mm frac with a herschel wedge pointed at the sun on the back of an am5 and it was a blast to use.
I've seen some folks push the AM5 beyond its limits, which has been really interesting. Overall though, it's a great mount and can't beat not breaking your back setting it up. Also, that's so cool you've been using it for solar! I've been wanting to get into solar observing/ imaging in general. Cheers!
@@SarahMathsAstro 100% agree. Along with all the other strain wave mounts it is a great technology for imaging. Will probably always require guiding, at least at FLs above 400ish. I want a portable direct drive mount with absolute encoders that would negate guiding. And as far as solar, my obsy partner bought the AM5 and that new ‘convertible’ Askar scope. Has both 60mm and 80mm tripl objective and with the wedge it was rock steady on the sun.
Well that was good timing 😊 great job!
Thanks, Tyler! I’m excited that you got yours!
Nice detailed review. We love our am5
Thanks! I’m glad you’re loving your AM5 :)
Thanks!
Wow :D ! Thank you so much for watching and for your Super Thanks!! This is incredibly generous of you and your support means a ton! Thank you again!
Nice equipment…Have fun stay safe.
Thank you, Kenneth! Clear Skies
Nice review, Sarah! Were you using the default guide settings with your setups? (Sorry if missed this in the video if you talked about it.) You had some terrific guiding. I've been using my AM5 since January with my Askar 107PHQ (about 24 lbs with everything attached) and I absolutely love it! As you said, it's very competitively priced and an excellent value, IMHO. Stars are nice and round and it's super easy to use overall.
Thank you, Greg! I was using the default guide settings. Looking back, I should have tried different ones but I don’t really mess with my guiding to begin with. I’m glad you’ve been enjoying your AM5! Cheers!
@@SarahMathsAstro Actually, I think you were probably better off with the settings you had, Sarah. I was just curious. Fine tuning those settings is quite a lengthy process of trial and error, and trying to do multiple things at once is a bear. I still haven't gotten my guiding settings nailed down firmly, but the guiding is very good, so I save the tinkering for those nights I'm not able to do any serious imaging.
11:10 Hello Sarah, I didn't seem to get why not to use the auto guide port? and how to use the guide scope directly? can you elaborate on that?
Hi Maged, I connect my guide camera directly to the ASIAir via USB instead of connecting my guide camera via cable to the guide port. Most people will tell you that it's always better to connect the guide camera to whatever acquisition device (your laptop or ASIAir, etc), instead of through the mount's ST-4 (for any mount, not just the AM5), as there can be more issues. Hope that makes sense.
@@SarahMathsAstro Thanks for letting me know, as I'm connecting the guide camera to the ASIAIR via both USB and ST4 cable to the mount. As I thought the ST4 cable was necessary to connect the guide camera to the mount. Now I'm gonna skip the ST4 cable connection 🙂
Excellent review but looks like you are making me spend money. LOL. One question about AM5 and ASIAir Plus - can you use it if you can't see Polaris? What has kept me from the equatorial mounts was this requirement. So I use the Celestron SkyAlign, which works okay, but as its a Alt-Az mount can't do any real astrophotography. But observing visually is still great. Thanks.
Thank you for the kind words, Stan! I find that the AM5 is a worthy purchase if that helps at all. I'm about a year in with the one I have, and I'm still quite pleased. The portability factor is a game changer.
To answer your question though, yes, you can use the AM5 and the ASIAir Plus if you aren't able to see Polaris. The ASIAir software has an experimental feature called "All-Sky" Polar Alignment that allows you to polar align by performing a three story alignment. You'll need to turn the feature on in the app to enable it though. In the ASIAir app, it's located under the "I" button > Experimental Features > All-Sky Polar Alignment. Once enabled, you can return back to the Preview section, ensure everything is in focus, perform a successful plate solve, sync that to the mount, then move onto PA to do polar alignment.
Astro Escape did a great video on how to orient your mount and perform the whole PA process here in this video: th-cam.com/video/J8Mm2x0vLlM/w-d-xo.html
Here is Peter Zelinka's video on the topic as well: th-cam.com/video/QP2Z32e5ZcI/w-d-xo.html
Hope this helps!
i enjoy your videos. do you have a backyard observatory?
Thank you! I do not. I hope to one day.
what size guide scope 😉 sorry could not resist it.. nice review
Ah! I meant 50mm, not 100mm. Ha :’)
Great video, good job. That mount is great. Best money I ever spent. lol.
Thanks! For the price point, payload capacity, and portability, it makes a lot of sense. Cheers!
I'd like to know how well it works with an 8" EdgeHD Celestron. This might be a bit heavy depending on the setup? Can we minimize the hardware for portability?
I've seen folks use the AM5 with a 9.25 HD for deep space imaging at its native focal length with success. Which amazed me. If you use the 8” EdgeHD, I think it would be fine with superb PA and guiding, as well as a counterweight bar and counterweight. So as long as you’re good with those two additional pieces of equipment from a portability perspective.
Just got mine yesterday 😀
Oh heck yeah!!! I hope you love it, Katie! ❤️
Great video, good job!Danke!!!!
Thank you!! Cheers!
I am considering getting this mount with the extension. I have a explorer Scientific ED 127 carbon fiber scope. It has 952mm focal length. I have a .7 reducer on it. I noticed that only 900mm focal length max is recommended. Is there anything I can do to improve this situation?
Thank you.
Focal length X the reducer. For me = 666.4mm I hope that this means that I can order the AM5.
Hey there, you are correct that the AM5 would be able to support the focal length of the ED 127 with the .7x focal reducer (666.4mm). Not sure if you're planning to guide, but I would recommend it with the AM5. This will improve the quality of your images. And just based on the physical length of your scope, it's good that you're going to be using the pier extension. I would probably just put a counterweight at the bottom of the TC40 tripod if that's the tripod you're planning to use.
On the note of focal lengths of 900mm+ with the AM5, I recently have read of others being able to image with those longer focal lengths successfully. Although they did need to make adjustments to their guiding algorithm to accommodate (trial and error based on their specific setup so I'm not sure of the specifics). This could be a route to try if you're interested/ curious. I personally have not tried this though. Otherwise, I think you'd be good to go with what you mentioned above, especially with the pier extension and if you're guiding. Hope this helps!
I live in Greenland at 64 degree. How would it balance when leaned back that much?
Great question. To my understanding, everything should work as intended. I haven't heard of anything affecting the balance at higher latitudes.
@@SarahMathsAstro Thanks good to hear :)
What was total oaylod of the two optical trains ypu tested with?
The first optical train with the William Optics RedCat 51 and the ASI533MC weighs about ~10lbs, and the optical train with the William Optics FLT110 and ASI2600MM Pro weighs roughly ~21lbs.
Ok, silly question.... I am starting in that whole astronomy/astrophotography endeavor, looking to purchase a one and only rig and I want to make sure I understand this one point....
Can you use this mount completely manually for visual astronomy (as in no electricity/no controller at all) ?
Not a silly question at all. You will need electricity for this mount, regardless of the mode you use it in (i.e., Alt-Az for visual astronomy or EQ for imaging).
Ugh i just bought the EQ6 and now i see this. Did i make a bad decision?
I have both the EQ6 and AM5 and love both of them. The EQ6 will have somewhat better guiding capabilities but will be heavier, and therefore, a less portable option (if that matters to you). The AM5 is great for portability since it's fairly light, but you'll need something like the ASIAir or a third-party electronic polar scope + software to polar align the mount since the AM5 doesn't have a built in polar scope like the EQ6 does. Payload capacity-wise, they're both about the same though. So the points I mentioned are what I would take into consideration if I had to choose between the two. Hope this helps!
Happy owner of a AM5N now - coming from an AM3… 😊
Congratulations and so happy to hear that you’re loving it :)
The AM3 was already a Gamechanger from the SA GTI! And now, much more Payload for futureproofness, and way better cable management! 🥳
Greetings from the cloudy (did anybody expect anything else?!) Bavarian south in Germany
So you have two 50mm guide scopes, a red and a white one?
Lol, the first (red) is a 32mm and the second (white) is the 50mm. Mistake on my part *face palm*
@@SarahMathsAstro No worries. I just thought you were matching colors with something else on the mount of clothing 😉
Awesome sauce. I would love to see how it works with your 11" Celestron HD.
a 8" sct is about the biggest you could put on this mount
Thanks! I probably wouldn’t use the Edge HD 11” with the AM5 for astrophotography/ in equatorial mode. If I were to use the 11”, it would only be for observational astronomy/ in Alt/Az mode.
Hello. Do you offer remote private tutorials? I want to get started here but I really need some help. Literally just an hourly rate for zoom calls for your time. 🙏
Hi there, thank you for reaching out. I don’t currently do consults, however, a lot of companies that sell astro gear offer free 1-1 assistance. From picking gear out, to how to set it up, and how to use it. Check out High Point Scientific and Starizona.
@@SarahMathsAstro appreciate that. Thanks. 🙏🙏
just got my mount in and it all had a peculiar smell for sure..lol
Congrats on the new mount :] haha
Buen vídeo
Thank you!
what about AM3?
I’ll be testing it soon and will hopefully have a review of it up in the next few months.
Williams Optics 100 mm guide scope?
Meant to say 50mm guide scope *face palm*
@@SarahMathsAstro OK that's better. Don't worry, we still love you!
@@jodyschultz5870 Appreciate you! :D
Being elderly and feeble, I have trouble carrying my Sky Watcher AX GTi and my Bresser 102/460 refractor, at 15 pounds.
I sometimes use a wagon with heavier gear, but lifting is still challenging. Grateful that astro equipment is getting smaller though.
Technically your presentation is very good. One thing that I would point out is that you don't need any filler syllables. Subjectively, you feel like your brain is way ahead of what your mouth can express so you add "um" or "uh". The viewer, on the other hand, will not notice unless you point it out with the affore mentioned interjections. Assume the audience can only perceive at around 1/10 the speed at which you can think and you're golden. 😎
Thanks, Jon! Really appreciate the feedback. My brain definitely goes very fast all the time, so not speaking quickly or saying “uh” or “uhm” is a conscious effort. Hoping for that to become unconscious in the future. Cheers!
This is hot!
It's a pretty slick piece of equipment :D
@@SarahMathsAstro Absolutely, kept my eyes glued on! ;-)
Why did you not image the same objects (M 31) with the 2 refractors, so we could compare. So annoying.
Thanks for your feedback! I'll do that next time.
Still 2700€ in Europe
Ah, gotcha.
I like your spanish 😅
Haha, muchas gracias :D
@@SarahMathsAstro 😂 prego (Italian - I’m learning the language. Don’t know any Spanish 🤷♂️🤭)
Italian is awesome! Love it :)
The lady is stressed 😂
SO stressed lol