Anyone got an AM5? Just ordered one and would like to know if there's anything i should check before the return period is up. Pretty cloudy atm so I might not be able to properly test it on the sky
#ZWO AM5
thick hound
graceful lily
@uncut ice didn't you order one aswell?
uncut ice
Yes sir I did. Haven't received it yet though. Should be here this week
thick hound
mine just arrived at a local sorting center 😄 exciting 🙂 sadly tonight was clean and no clear skies coming up this week 😦
so far I haven't read about any defects that people have noticed. But i haven't seen a lot of reviews either
thick hound
Aw yea baby 🙂 🙂
mandatory weather report 😂
so far, the mount is surprisingly quite. YT reviews did mention it's very quite, but comparing it to my az-gti mount, it's SUPER quite lol
slewing with remote and asiair seems ok roughly estimating indoors, home position sensors work briliantly
10/10 indoor "tests" 😛
graceful lily
Looking good
thick hound
feels good too, movements seem like 100x better and more precise than with my az-gti just by eyeballing it. Maybe it's because it's 20x more expensive and i'm biased by a lot. In any case it does feel like a night and day difference lol
thick hound
Love the case too 🙂
uncut ice
mine just arrived at a local sorting center 😄 exciting 🙂 sadly tonight was cle...
Lucky! Mine should arrive at telescopescanada tomorrow barring any delays. I'm looking to pick mine up saturday
thick hound
Nice, i played with mine yesterday’s through thin high clouds. It’s totally night and day difference from my old mount 🙂 I don’t regret getting it so far. Worth every penny imo
graceful lily
Where are you from again?
thick hound
nice! you got to properly use it?
uncut ice
nice! you got to properly use it?
For an hour or so yeah. No settings changed it was guiding around .60rms out of the box
Did some stress tests. Here is a 16 minute exposure..
Stars are round af
uncut ice
nice! you got to properly use it?
When it got cloudy I just grabbed it with one arm and went inside 
solemn ibex
I tested my ZWO am5 against my eq6-r side by side on guiding performance. (OAg on the eq6, simple 50mm guide scope on the am5) the am5 guiding consistently was typically about 0.1” RMS worse than my eq6. This remained fairly consistent through the night. That night I got around 0.5-1.0” RMS. Average through the night was 0.7”. I was very impressed. This is a small but meaningful data point. I’m in favor of this mount as a combination of both a portable and regular use mount. Eq6-r pro was slightly better performance but is not portable at all. I say get it!
uncut ice
I tested my ZWO am5 against my eq6-r side by side on guiding performance. (OAg o...
It kinda hits that sweet spot of it does it all eh
thick hound
Did some stress tests. Here is a 16 minute exposure..
16 min exposure??? Bloody hell! Those stars do look perfect, yeah
It’s still all cloudy forecast for the next week 😦 sad
Portability is def a big plus with this mount. Also the case it comes with looks and feels pretty good for transporting it somewhere. And setup is also pretty easy once you get there
But first I have to wait out this cloud curse that won’t go away 😦
Nothing has changed 😦
uncut ice
16 min exposure??? Bloody hell! Those stars do look perfect, yeah
Yeah here it is almost finishing up the 1000s exposure
The image on display there was a two minute exposure. Two looked nice so I figured let's crank it to 11 for the next test shot
graceful lily
Asair seems good
You want it becauase it makes everything so easy but you don't because most it does is frre
thick hound
I love my asiair, I used to use a small pc to control everything, but asiair just makes it so much easier and faster to start a session, and also it’s been a lot more reliable than the custom zoo of apps that worked together on the pc
Aw and it uses a fraction of the power
IMO it’s totally worth it if you don’t mind locking yourself into zwo world. Which I don’t really like the practice, but damn does it all work well together
graceful lily
It's more worth it if you don't have a laptop and don't need one
uncut ice
It's more worth it if you don't have a laptop and don't need one
That's kind of silly, I have a laptop...the idea of sitting outside hunched ovr a laptop while imaging sounds horrible. The idea of dealing with Windows and everything that comes with it like firmware and updates etc, sounds horrible. Getting four or five programs to talk with one another...is horrible.
It has nothing to do with not owning a laptop, it has to do with streamlining the process. This is a product that has a full feature set that allows you to do everything you would need to do in astrophotography. Polar alignment routine, focus assistant, auto focus control, video mode for planetary, EAA mode, the ability to stack images in the app. A full sky atlas with a mosaic mode. Plate solving, annotation, guiding, and on and on...all from the comfort of my couch. Streamed right to my phone.
It's also a 12v power distribution device with its four 12v dc outlets.
All of this adds up to a device that is intuitive, easy, and most important of all it's incredibly efficient. When I'm working 9hrs a day, taking care of my family and the other typcial life responsibilities, dicking around on a laptop and those imaging programs is the opposite of using my time wisely. My free time is very slim, a single $400 purchase is more thsn worth it
solemn ibex
I use NINA for my EQ6-R Pro, and using the ASI-air on my AM5 and it buys me time. NINA is great for optimizing for perfection and having full control of it, where the ASI-air is great for a quick setup and run. Both are great. Time is a big deal, so people can choose whatever tool(s) fits their lifestyle.