First thoughts on ZWO AM5 mount

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Managed to take the brand-new AM5 out for a quick spin yesterday, and am very impressed so far. The build quality is excellent, stability great. 

I set up the Meade SN6 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton, first with the Nagler 31T5, later with the equally hefty ES 12 mm 92° eyepiece. The mount skewed rapidly and tracked effortlessly, vibration damping easily on a par with the venerable Vixen GP-DX. Had some nice views of the Ring Nebula with the 12mm EP in particular. I still need to sort out polar alignment and go-to functions better (will probably use the ASIAIR-Plus for that), but I am very pleased so far. 

With the power supply I was using, I did get an occasional message of low voltage in the AM5 app, but only when slewing rapidly. The LiFePO4 battery I just got had no such problems, so I need to use a more powerful 12 V power supply when using mains voltage. 

What I like is that you can also just slew around with the joystick, ignoring all advanced go-to stuff, although the controls do take some getting used to.