The Admiral

This is a bit difficult to answer as neither mount has any real pedigree to refer to, though the AM5 is starting to be delivered (mine on Monday ), so we are starting to get real experience coming through. I'm not sure just how much real information is available for the HEM27. The ZWO Facebook site for the mount has a few user experiences from the early testers, and a production PE curve, so is probably worth a visit. Have you seen this video? I shall be using mine with the ASIAir, so has the benefit of being of the same brand, and hopefully, they'll play together nicely. That will also mean I don't need an iPolar, as I can do PA through the ASIAir. Currently, the iPolar requires a laptop to use, but my understanding is that iOptron are working on a tablet version, though how far advanced they are I wouldn't like to say. How important the fact that it is a hybrid drive is unknown. What focal length do you intend to use? A broad statement is that long focal length scopes are less suitable for harmonic drives on account of the level of PE. Sorry, not sure that I have pointed you in the right direction. Ian

Nice catch. It always seems so rewarding when you can view the whole arc I think. Ian

I'll do what I can

Well, when we get some longer nights - I'm no good with staying up into the (late) early hours . Huh, silly me having a hobby like this isn't it? . Ian

YAY!! My AM5 mount and tripod is going to be delivered on Monday.. It's been a long wait and here's hoping it will have been worth it. Well, it has to be really, I've been mount-less for quite a few months now . Mind you, I've had a lot of back trouble this year and wouldn't have been able to set up anyway, and now it's Summer. Thank you FLO. Ian

What? Neutrons having a memory! Indeed, I wonder what relevance this has to neutron stars, though of course in those extreme situations the neutrons don't appear to have any option but to get close to one another. Ian

Exactly what I'm doing. I've pre-ordered the ZWO but I can't afford to wait for all the user reviews to come out, I'll end up being too old! 😀. And with all these new players in the game it'd never end! I know I'm taking a bit of a gamble but on the other hand it should play nicely with the ASIAir. The Rainbow is just too expensive. Ian

According to the FaceBook page, the counterweight bar is now available on the ZWO website, https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/product/zwo-counterweight-bar. No doubt coming to a place near you soon . Ian

Heads up. Melvyn Bragg and guests, in his R4 programme "In Our Time", on today (9 June), is covering the death of stars. Sounds interesting, shall have to catch up on the whole programme. Ian

If I remember correctly, ZWO are working on that but as yet it hasn't hit the streets. I imagine any existing M12 CW bar would do. I did see one mentioned, but I don't recall which. Ian

Now that the Covid situation in China has eased and manufacturing and shipping are getting underway again, we can at last looking forward to seeing deliveries starting up again. Anyone who's been following the ZWO mount Facebook pages will know that last Saturday there was a live streaming of unboxing and setting up the mount, with questions and answers, hosted by one of the early testers. Here's the YouTube version, for anyone interested. Ian

If I recall correctly the ASI294 has peculiarities when taking flats. The recommended exposure time is 2-3 secs. There are numerous posts around on taking flats with this camera. Have you successfully taken flats before with this camera? Ian

Yes, sorry I should have guessed that! I just hadn't picked up on that! Ian

Since you are taking flats in order to correct for non-uniformity of the light pattern produced by the scope, it follows that the camera has to be attached to the scope as if you were imaging when you take flats. You can take darks with the camera off the scope because there is no light involved. Ian

It does, which would be surprising given the nature of these gears, but I think for all these new mounts we need a lot more data based on real user experience to make a decent appraisal. Ian

Would I be correct in assuming that you could do away with this if you had an ASIAir Plus, and just connected the long LAN cable to the ASIAir? Local to the ASIAir you could control through its own WiFi, and remotely via the house WiFi. Ian

I wasn't meaning to download the taken images Dave, that would indeed go onto some local storage medium, but rather I was thinking of the images you get whilst setting up and running, which are visible on the ASIAir App screen. Not sure how big those proxies are though. Ian

Some years ago I tried a powerline adapter so that I could get our TV tuner/recorder connected to the internet. I only got about 3.5Mbps IIRC. Can the mains circuitry be fast enough to get an image transferred for viewing in short order? Ian

Me neither! It may not be so straightforward if you want to use a tablet and the ASI app, rather than a PC/laptop. It has set me thinking though, there ought to be a way. Ian

Steve Nickolls uses an Ethernet cable to control his remote mount and imaging gear, using the StarTech USB over ethernet system. In your case though, as the ASIAir has an Ethernet port, it may be a simpler arrangement, though to be honest, that's a bit beyond my knowledge base . Perhaps something like this? https://www.startech.com/en-gb/networking-io/usb31000s Ian

Hmm, seems that I was not alone then. True, perhaps it's just one of those days. But when they do, their decaying residues just add to the murk we are trying to image through. Mind you, the weather itself is quite enough to contend with . Ian

.... you have to contend with these. When I looked out of the bedroom window this morning I was confronted with this mess (before it became completely overcast ). At least you can remove satellite trails. Ian

I put a cropped and re-saved picture from the Pegasus web site through Astrometry.net and ended up with an image scale of 1.97 arc-s/px (note. I don't think that'll be the same as the original in view of the additional image manipulations, but the stars should scale proportionately). Looking at these two stars I get approximate widths of 6 and 14 arc-s. So, if my logic is correct, that might support Icesheet's doubt. Please correct me if I am wrong. Mind you, given that is unguided, perhaps it's a pretty good result, bloated stars or not. I don't think other manufactures would recommend using their mounts unguided, let alone with a 2800mm fl scope! Incidentally, they are using a 2 second guide exposure, which implies a relatively slowly changing PE, not really what one would expect from strain-wave gearing. I'm not trying to slate the Pegasus product here, or cast doubt on their credibility, just trying to get a handle on what performance might be, from the sparsely available information from manufacturers. In fact, neither the new iOptron nor the Pegasus mount have any hard and fast real-use measurements of performance, and neither are quoting the PE. To be fair to ZWO, they at least have published the PE curves, so you know what one might expect, and there is now some real-use reports on the ZWO mount Facebook site. The Rainbow, of course, has been available for some while and there will be user reports. Ian

How do you focus? Could they be oscillations of the scope after focusing by hand? Presumably the amplitude of the oscillations wouldn't need to be large to give that effect. Ian Edit. On second thoughts, I don't think you'd get that! 🙄

Indeed. But I guess things are so fluid now we still might not be able to find the exact combination of preferences. I accept that as an early adopter I will have to take things as they come. I intend to use the ASIAir for imaging anyway, so my needs will be different. Each to their own. Ian