ZWO AM3 Harmonic Mount - Ultimate Travel Mount?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Welcome to the strain wave revolution. In this video I review the ZWO AM3 Harmonic Equatorial Mount. I compare it to the ZWO AM5 mount and the popular Sky-Watcher EQ6R PRO mount. I analyze the AM3's guide performance and images taken with the mount and discover if my search for the perfect travel mount is finally over. I purchased the mount myself and this review is not sponsored or influenced in any way. All opinions expressed are my own. Let me know in the comments what you think of the review and if you found it helpful.
Mounts and Tripods:
ZWO AM3 (Sale: FREE Carbon Fiber Tripod): bit.ly/4bGhD0w
ZWO AM5 (Sale: FREE Carbon Fiber Tripod): bit.ly/3vZ3Dzp
ZWO TC40 Carbon Fiber Tripod: bit.ly/3Qc9b0g
iOptron CEM70: bit.ly/3Q7KdyT
iOptron Tri-Pier: bit.ly/3WbgfhC
Sky-Watcher EQ6R Pro: bit.ly/3PwUdli
Cameras:
ASI2600mc DUO Color Camera: bit.ly/4csEPjE
ASI2600MM PRO Monochrome Camera: bit.ly/3WcVvG3
ZWO ASI6200MC Pro Color Full Frame Camera: bit.ly/3QdM9G6
Telescopes and optics:
Celestron 11" EdgeHD: bit.ly/4apIE7b
Starizona Hyperstar 11: bit.ly/494gopO
Celestron RASA 8" Astrograph: bit.ly/3UtlVlQ
Askar FRA400 72mm f/5.6 Quintuplet refractor: bit.ly/44bI1MD
Sharpstar 150mm f/2.8 HNT Hyperbolic Newtonian Astrograph: bit.ly/3Urd4AP
Filters:
IDAS NBZ 2 Duo Band Filter (Recommended for RASA or Hyperstar but also works on slower telescopes): bit.ly/3TyWq0B
Optolong L-Ultimate DuoBand filter: (Recommended for telescopes other than RASA or Hyperstar) bit.ly/3vSa737
Smart Telescopes:
Seestar S50 All-In-One Smart Telescope (my current recommendation): bit.ly/4d4XZw7
Visual Observing and Accessories:
Sky-Watcher 150mm GTi GoTo Telescope (best value portable telescope): bit.ly/3Us9g2o
Sky-Watcher 16" Flextube SynScan (serious aperture with Go-To): bit.ly/3JrtGT1
Premium HoTech 1.25" SCA Laser Collimator (for reflector telescopes): bit.ly/3JvGpDW
Basic Laser Collimator (for reflector telescopes): amzn.to/3OwaohV
General Affiliate links:
Agena Astro: agenaastro.com...
High Point Scientific: www.highpoints...
Affiliate programs disclosure: I am a member of the Agena, HighPoint Scientific, and Amazon affiliate programs. If you use the links in my video description, I will make a small commission at absolutely no cost to you. This helps me support this channel and continue to make these videos and tutorials for you. Thank you for your support.
If you like my work, consider supporting me on Patreon so I can continue to bringing you videos like this: / abdurastro
Clear skies my friends.
Thanks, I have both AM5 & AM3 and I do feel it is smaller and lighter and choose it first based on Scope size and weight. I have an SN8 and would not put on the AM3 even it can handle the weight but I think the AM5 is more stable mount.
The SN8 weighs around 24lbs I believe so after adding a camera and other accessories, it'll be pretty close to the 30lb limit of the AM3. I wouldn't put that on the AM3 for imaging either. I would be fine using the AM3 for imaging with scope up to a C8 or maybe even a C9.25 if it's being used with a hyperstar or a camera with fairly large pixels. Do you use a pier for your mounts? :)
These mounts are really changing the game for a lot of folks. I was considering the AM3 myself, but went with the lighter Ioptron HEM15 (5.5lb) as I physically have to carry my setup everywhere as I don't drive and can't image from my apartment building.
It's been a beautiful setup for the 180 / 270 / 360mm focal lengths I'm imaging at (Askar FMA180, Sharpstar 61edph iii with FR and FF). I'm seeing 0.7-1.0" rms error in general, but I'm also a beginner and am winging my way through with the Asiair Plus. I'd love to see the mount reviewed by someone with your experience, but over a year in and I still haven't seen any reviews outside of Cloudy Nights forums!
Can't go wrong with the HEM15 either. Both are great mounts. 0.7-1.0" rms error is well within your imaging resolution. I would love to review one if iOptron or an astronomy retailer would like to send me one for review. Are you also using shorter guide exposures? The HEM15 should also guide better with shorter exposures around 0.5s than the regular equatorial mounts.
@@AbdurAstro Shorter exposures with a 120mm f4 + asi120mm mini combo. I've been finding that I sometimes have to switch back and forth between 0.5 and 1.0" as my guiding setup can lose track of stars in Asiair. I think it might be seeing dependant, but not completely sure.
Either way, you're right that I'm easily within the safe zone for my setup. I've thrown out remarkably few exposures during this past year! The mount itself has been amazing, and I genuinely have no complaints aside from the fact it would be nice if it wasn't necessary to connect the hand controller.
Rst135e from rainbow Astro. 0.5kg lighter. Higher capacity. Renishaw encoder. This is “ultimate”. 😊
Just what I needed.
Glad I could help :)
I think it's too pricey. The AM5 weight capacity is about 60% of the AM5 but not 60% of the price. It should be about $1400 but on agena astro, the am5 is available now with the tripod for free. Also, the counter weight is only really needed to prevent the mount from tipping over. The motor is more than capable of handling the max weight without the counter.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you. I do wish the AM3 was a bit cheaper but it is on sale with the free $300 carbon fiber tripod right now which is why I bought it. Not sure I could have justified it to myself otherwise. I plan to use that tripod for other mounts and cameras as well. The motors on the AM5 were struggling with heavy scopes like a C11 in cold weather for some people (which us Canadians have 70% of the time) but ZWO now has a heavy-duty mode in the settings which helps. So the motors are pretty strong but I would still prefer to use a counterweight especially in the cold and if using the carbon fiber tripod as it's fairly small and light. Tipping over could be a real concern with a large scope as it would be top heavy. Luckily my counterweight extension bar from the EQ6R fits the AM3 and AM5 so I can use one of those counterweights too :)
hi
i have Am3 but i cant get good treking resultates.
Did Am3 needs a guide scop or works wihout to?
and what kind of guide scop i need minimum do guiding i have guiding camera asi 178 mc?
Hi there. If you are doing long exposure imaging, a guide scope is really helpful to get the best results. Any guide camera such as the 178MC will work. I used the 178MC for a long time as my guide camera in the past.
The AM3 should also be quite capable of doing long exposures without a guide scope however, depending on the focal length of your telescope, you might be limited to anywhere between 1-3 minutes per exposure. You will have to make sure your polar alignment is perfect as that is one of the main causes of bad unguided tracking. What scope and camera are you using and how long are you exposures right now?
i bought one set last month too 😄
Hard to resist the weight/performance ratio. I can carry the whole setup with one hand. I couldn't even imagine carrying my EQ6R like that.
Are you traveling by plane to take 1-2 pictures? I was always puzzled by “I need scope/mount for travel by plane”. How does this work? Could you bring an example?
Hi there. On my eclipse trip to Texas, I had taken my SkyGuider Pro, Canon 6D, and my Fuji mirrorless camera. I took thousands of pictures during the trip and although it might have been a once in a lifetime eclipse trip for us, we also decided to make it our honeymoon trip. So we definitely didn't travel by plane just to take 1-2 pictures although I can see how it might look like that from the video. Haha. I just haven't had time to share my full eclipse trip video here yet.
The AM3 mount along with an ASIAIR Plus and the 60mm refractor will now be my main travel kit for trips where I have to fly, as well as trips where we are driving to our destination. With our camping/outdoor gear, I usually don't have a lot of space to bring astro equipment in the car :)
still too pricey here in Australia also please add the metric measurements when talking weights, most people use kg
I put both metric and imperial units in the video. The second chart (which I show right after the imperial one) is metric and has all the same info :)
I have the 3. Just spend the extra 200 bucks on the 5. Trust me.
We trust you 😉. But why go with the 5 instead?