AM5 First Light!
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- Опубліковано 18 січ 2024
- More to come on this, but it was nice to finally get a clear sky for the first time in 7 weeks and test this thing out!
Huge thanks to 365Astronomy for sending this over for usage, they are a great retailer and will look after you! :-)
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its so good to see you back in the garden!!
Thank you bro!! :-D it felt good!
Now that you have an awesome portable kit, it's time to go on the road in search of darker skies 😉 Though short and candid, this is the sort of content that people crave! You have excellent narrating skills so have the recipe to take your channel to a whole new level 🙂 Thanks Luke!
Thank you mate!! I definitely want to do just that kind of thing, 100%! :-) I'm glad to hear you're looking forwards to it!
Thanks for battling the cold to produce this video. I do love my AM5 along with the convenience of ASIAIR’s ability to allow me to spend the night in my living room marveling at the fantastic guiding (below 1.0) and pin point stars. After some insignificant issues with the wifi reception, I’ve run an Ethernet cable directly to my ASIAIR and now I can monitor everything from the furthest room in my house without any loss of signal. The ASIAIR + AM5 does make you feel somewhat guilty as it flawlessly collects data from sunset to sunrise as it powers itself off. My history with astrophotography was always, ‘no pain, no gain.’ Now it’s, ‘no pain, all gain.’😊 My only issue is the polar alignment sensitivity…I’ve found that by keeping a bit of tension on the clutches helps when locking down. It’s still a trial and error for me as I go from deck to living room, only to realize the alignment shifted with me off the deck. Okay, ‘no pain, “mostly” all gain.” 😊
Thank you Joe!!
I've found the same with the adjustment bolts, a little tension left on them keeps movements more predictable 👍
Clear skies!
These are my favourite type of videos
I bought the AM5 last may and its the best piece of kit ever! I would recommend anyone considering buying it to get the extension pier and counter weight bar and weights. The pier is essential to prevent collisions between camera gear and the tripod legs. The counterweights may not affect performance on this mount but they will give it a more even centre of gravity and may prevent it falling over if it got a hard knock at some point. It's so portable and quick and easy to set up.
Great to hear that Kevin, and fantastic advice! I do think one of those pier extensions could be very useful 👍
Great stuff Luke! Stay warm buddy. Love the new mount. Looks beautiful. I have not imaged here since early December. Too cold or cloudy. Oh well, galaxy season is coming!! Dr B from Manitoba, Canada 🇨🇦
Thanks! Will do!
Hope we have a much more fruitful galaxy season my friend!! :-)
Thank you Luke for that great video. 🤘🏻 Just went outside to check my guide settings on my am5.😂 0.5s still working fine for me. And yeah, it's also freezing cold in Bavaria that night 🥶
I'll give 0.5s a go! :-D clear skies buddy!
it sure was a cold one, my scope still had frost on it 24hra lATER, nice to see you outside again int dark.
It a lovely mount, so good ive got tue
Oh mate it was freezing wasn't it haha!! 😅 It was -5c here before wind-chill made it feel worse
Excellent video! I'm amazed at the image you were able to get! 😍🔭 Clear skies!
Thank you very much! That's kind of you to say 🙏
Clear skies my friend!
Very nice. For me, these harmonic drive systems seem to be the way to go, both in terms of performance, ease-of-use and value. I am going to give myself at least 6 months with the SeeStar S50 to make sure the hobby holds my interest (so far all indicators are....I need to start saving some $$!!) and this unit is at the top of my wish list right now.
On a sort-of related topic, I got my lens cap and bhatinov mask for the S50 today from you. Only 9 days from the UK to my slice of heaven here on the west coast of Canada. What a terrific value, thanks again! Rumour has it that the sun has not completely forsaken us here so I hope to get perfect focus on my next session.
Cheers
That's awesome to hear!! I think the Seestar is a perfect entry point into astro, while also remaining fun if you decide to go deeper into it, great device!! :-)
Glad you enjoy those parts my friend, good luck for some clear skies!
Yes, it is a slippery slope from astrophotography desires to financial pain. Walk carefully, and enjoy!😊
You've gone soft mate 😅 ! Less than two years of observatory life and you're a changed man ! Only messing mate I was outside probably same night and it was absolutely freezing at around -5°c . AM5 looks a fantastic portable mount which would be brilliant to take camping on North Yorkshire moors ! Somewhere like Goathland ( heartbeat) countryside would make a great trip !
Hahah!! :-D it was bloody freezing wasn't it, got to -5c before windchill - I was severely underdressed, lol!
Definitely think this thing is nice and portable, should be a great travel partner for some trips out! can't wait to see where the plan ends up!
We’ve been blessed with some clear skies this week mate, it’s been great to get out. Great results as always mate and I hope all is well 🌌 👍.
Thanks so much mate, hope you are well too! Wish the clear skies would come back now haha, instead we're getting yet another storm! 😅
I love everything about this mount except the janky PA knobs and how far they stick out and catch cables. Oh, and mine is at the service center right now because the declination motor spontaneously broke… so that’s unreliable as well. I’ve missed the entire winter season with it out of commission. Hopefully yours is a good one! Clear skies
My AM5 has been sitting at ZWO Tech Support since December 6. Every time I contact them I get the same update: "Sorry." Pretty soon they will have had it longer than I did. No longer a fan of Big Red.
@@TheGoKidd There’s something weird about that. I would go on the zwo user forums and go off about it. Actually, put that out everywhere you can to force zwo to actually do something and address the problem. I had to get Agena Astro to step in and make them respond to me. They better not hold mine forever like that.
Zwo makes good quality products but damn is everything else about them just horrendous.
Damn that's rough mate, I hope you get it back sooner rather than any later!
Re: the PA lock knobs, mine are able to be lifted on their shafts and rotated to a safe position, that may be something new!
Good luck 👍
Love my AM5! So easy to carry out and set up!
congrats for the clear skies! the am5 or am3 have certainly been tempting, and now that i’m figuring out my luggage situation for the upcoming eclipse i can even more appreciate that much reduced size and weight!
I still can't believe the size of the AM5 vs what it can actually carry, it doesn't seem right haha!!
Clear skies mate!
Nice one Luke! At least this recent cold snap has brought along some lovely clear skies. I was out for the first time in ages too last Friday and have ended up getting out 4 of the last 7 evenings. Long may it continue! 🥶👍 Noddy
That's excellent mate!! So glad you've had some nice clear skies :-D long may they continue!!
Luke, its not been that cold but I agree its felt bloody freezing. BTW love the pano from cityscape to the stars. It was quite emotional.
Thank you so much!! I liked that footage too 👍👍
Looks like a great mount Luke nice image , looking forward to seeing you out and about this this mount
Thank you ever so much Tony mate! :-) Clear skies!!
Cool little portable mount. Hope all is well with you and yours Luke. The AM5 is the little mount with a big appetite.. isn't it crazy that no counter weights are needed, just seems wrong. CS
Thanks Jason my friend, we're OK mate, hoping you and your family are well too!! :-)
RE: the AM5, totally agreed haha - it just seems wrong somehow!
Clear skies mate :-)
I have two AM5s and I love them both, they work flawlessly. Using the external knobs for polar alignment are great especially for working in the cold. The autoguiding is much better than my IOptron CGEM 26 and Celestron CGX mounts. The longest exposure time that I have done is 23 minutes and it tracked perfectly. The only issue that I have with the mount it is very easy to tip over but using weights will eliminate the issue. When imaging in the wind this is rock solid, I never had an issue. The only issue that I have is that the little hand controller that comes with is very limited and small to handle when wearing gloves. Clear Skies my friend!
So glad the AM5's that you have are such workhorses, that's brilliant!!
I'm looking forwards to trying this one out again but this time with a cooled astro cam I think :-D
Luke come over and join us on the East coast for a weekend. As you know Glenn , Simon and I are in B4 skies and its not a bad run from yours to ours.
Maybe one day mate yeah, it'd be cool to do something like that!
Luke, add an ASIAIR Pro to the setup and you can stay warm! That’s what I have (AM5, ASIAIR Pro, ASI533MC, and William Optics Redcat 61), and once I’ve performed the polar alignment and then the focus using the 61’s Bahtinov mask, I go back into my house and control everything with my iPad. I have to go back outside only when the session is over to bring the rig back into the house.
I had the asiair on it haha!! :-D I did monitor much of the session from in my Observatory warm room luckily, but those outdoor filmed segments got pretty chilly 😅
Clear skies my friend!
Managed a couple of nights out my way Luke it's been way to long lol, I'd love a more portable set up but no pennies sadly. Cracking image you got to mate clear skies (we hope)
That's good to hear mate, so glad you got some clear!! :-D hope more will come after these storms clear off!
Well done luke, a good clear night at last,we've had them here in Ireland as well, I've been imaging galaxies in Pegusus , lovely image, my next target is the cone nebula ( 3rd try) then the horsehead. Keep warm and keep em coming 😂
Excellent mate!! Good luck with that cone and horsehead! :-D
Clear skies to you my friend 👍👍
Clear skies Like what are they mate 😂This mount is one I have been Keeping an eye on and when I eventually get rid of the Eqr6- pro I think this could be the one for me 😄Hopefully some more clear skies will be here soon
Ah mate it's been unreal with these storms haha!! Never experienced anything like it, one day it will be clear again, I know it!! 😅
Hope you're well my friend!
Hi mate you going to love that mount , I have two of them and one have my sct8" with 2sec expose on guiding and always run below .5 tot y loved !!!! clear sky !!!!!
Excellent to hear that mate!! I may try some slightly longer guide exposures and see how it goes, they seem to be working well for you :-D
Clear skies!
Really awesome stuff - I also took advantage of the last two mostly clear and cold nights here in Wales, testing a similar mount by MeowStar Astro, their UMi 17 lite. Definitely give that mount a go if you can, it's super lightweight, and I also achieved significantly below 1" guiding all night, even when averaging in gusts of wind and clouds. It's also a LOT cheaper than the AM3 here in the UK, and support is via a very active discord server. Managed to get 8 hours of flawless imaging on the Iris nebula, and another 3.5 hours on the Elephant Trunk Nebula, with the latter using 10 minute subs.
Great to hear that mate, competition is a good thing for us!! If the opportunity comes up to try one of the mounts I'll do it! 👍👍
Good luck for some clear skies my friend!
It's a great little portable mount and I'm happy with how mine is performing so far. I was interested as to why you were using such short guide exposures of 0.2ssec - I've been doing 1 sec exposures and guiding has been around 0.4 and 0.6 total rms error. Whilst I'm not using the tripod from ZWO and instead using the one very similar from iOptron, I did find that stability was greatly enhanced by having a weight in a hammock between the tripod legs (I'm just using a rock) when using the mount with the legs extended (but I see you had it at it's shortest position so was probably pretty stable there anyway).
Good to hear that tip Logan!!
Re: the short guide exposures, I'd just read they perform best with very short guide exposures so gave it a go, but I'll definitely try longer ones too! :-)
Clear skies mate!
Hi Luke as i mentioned before if you are planning to go on a field trip i think you should go big and get to the Canary Islands you can go to the mountains where all the big observatories are you can set-up in the one of the best skys in the world i used to live in Fuerteventura but a 10 min ferry ride and your on Lanzarote i was living there to learn to walk a bit as i use a wheelchair because of the weather in our winter and i never had a telescope then but i used to use a lazer pointer and a mobile app to teach tourists the stars i have used one of the large telescopes in one of the observatories when i was doing a open university degree but then i was living back in Cardiff Wales then i think i would go back one day with a decent setup that you are able to get on a plane with unless you want to drive and ferry it (ahhh nightmare) it is possible but it's a long long time to do it that way but worth it for the amazing skys i had my belongings delivered back to the UK from a villa on feurteventura it took 3 days so possible i would suggest a aeroplane mate you want to be fresh i would go in our winter the summer is way to hot 40°+ and to many tourists winter is about 20° so much better
That would be one hell of an adventure mate! Perhaps a bit expensive though for this point in my life unfortunately! 😅
Clear skies to you my friend!
Thanks for this Luke. I am 90% sold on getting the AM5, but before I pull the trigger, I want to learn more about it, so that I am not suprised by anything. So your video is really helpful. I would love to see a video showing a little more on how you are electronically connecting everything. Are you using one power supply to power everything? Cable management is a weakness of mine, but I would like to get better, and the AM5 may be where I could get that cleaned up. Thanks!
Thank you my friend!!
I'll likely cover that kind of thing during coming videos/sessions, but for now everything is powered by one power supply, with power running through the mount outlet too.
Cheers!
Hmmm... I've been using 0.5 seconds guide exposure on my, now, not so new AM5 and guiding in the range between 3.8 and 6 arc seconds with both my petzval 71mm and my 102mm F7. I have considered trying .25 seconds, but wonder if your 0.02 may be at the point of diminishing returns. At least with my ASI mini 120, I doubt it could resolve much at that short exposure.
In any case, shorter guide exposures are the key to better guiding on the strain wave mounts. I would be interested in knowing what guide exposures others are using....
Hey mate! These days I've settled for 0.5s exposures and it works great :-) hope that helps!
Lucky bugger, it is my next mount to compliment my pier mounted EQ6 just the portability alone makes it worthwhile
Excellent matE! - the portability is wild given how large the payload is! :-) Clear skies!
I've been looking at replacing my old EQ6-r Pro with either the AM5 or AM3 as that think is a lump! However, for the price I think I'm more interested in something like the Warpdrive WD17s with it's servo harmonic motors rather than a belt reduced version like the AM5/3.
I had to google that one mate, the Warpdrive WD17s! Interesting looking mount for sure, seems to be well liked! :-) Clear skies!
That's a great result, you could just about pick that rig up with one hand. I was going to use a spare eq6-r I have for a portable rig, but even that is a pain to rig up/down so something like an AM5 would be a much better option. How are you finding the Starfield Gear60 after having it for a while? I was thinking about getting an Askar FRA300 for a portable widefield scope, which is similar to the Gear60, but is a little more expensive.
Thanks so much Pete mate!! - It's amazingly light given the payload capacity, it kind of feels wrong almost haha! :-)
RE: the Starfield Gear60, it's super mate - really no complaints to be honest, lovely tight stars across a very well illuminated frame and great build.
I've not tested one of course but from what I read online I'm sure the Askar FRA300 is equally as nice so it probably boils down to what you like the look of best!
Clear skies mate!
Hi, thanks for the review. Out of interest what sort of guiding figures were you getting during the night ?
Thanks for watching! - on this night I was getting around 1" guiding, but I think that can be improved upon quite a bit 👍
Quick Question…. Is there any way to say take a stacked image and add it onto more data from a later session?
If you have all your old data you can stack everything up, but tell the stacking program it's from multiple sessions.
If you only have the old master then you can still add them together by using dynamic alignment in pixinsight and then blending the two together with pixelmath 👍
200ms guide subs could be a little too short lol. On mine I stick to 1s or 1.5s depending on seeing
Good to know!! I'll try increasing it 👍
Why so fast guiding? I do 1 second exp and rms is .25 to .50 with the Sam135mm.
I'd read harmonic mounts perform best with as short a guide exposure as possible, but perhaps 0.2 is pushing it a bit - I'll try some longer ones and compare! 👍