Pegasus Astro: new Harmonic Drive Mount

[AdamJL]

Looks like they’re getting in on the action as well!

Also Sharpstar recently announced their own Harmonic Drive mount as well.
Exciting times :)

https://astrogeartoday.com/sharpstar-introduces-mark-iii-harmonic-german-equatorial-mount/

SkyWatcher also recently hinted at a possibly new mount coming next year in their podcast…. Small and portable and made for AP.
Another harmonic? Or a beefier AZ-GTI..

[AnakChan]

There are so many HD mounts now, SharpStar, ZWO, PegasusAstro, BH25HD, BH-17H, Goto MX-HD, SS-One Traveler, K-Astec, HobyM 140 Traveler, RainbowAstro 135(E)/300.

[Merlin66]

Still USB2 on "the latest and best"???

[ChrisV]

Do you need more than usb2 for a mount?

[Merlin66]

Faster and more flexible??

[AdamJL]

Interesting. This one looks cheaper than the ZWO...

[JohnH]

A word of caution - yes no backlash, no need for a CW, portable, high capacity but for a portable mount bear in mind this design has relatively high (albeit smooth) PE. It may be you can use PEC to compensate but if not you will need to guide...this may not be an issue for your application but it is something to check...

[BlakPhoenix]

You usually cannot use PEC on harmonic drives. The PE changes based on the scope, weight and where the mount is pointing. With the RST-135 (non-encoder version) most users guide at 0.5s to ensure they keep on top of the PE.

[pmrid]

The limit of 900mm focal length of the ZWO variant is a bummer. And the +/-20 arc second “stably controlled” PE also. My initial enthusiasm for this mount has dulled somewhat because of these things.

[AdamJL]

Hi Peter

The 900mm f/l is indeed strange, but the PE is controlled via faster guiding.

I guess these different types of mounts are going to require different types of solutions to get working optimally.

[ChrisV]

Agree. The PE and focal length limit for that pricetag limits enthusiasm.

Any volunteers to buy and try? Would be interesting to see how if goes with appropriate guiding

And does anyone actually use PEC with the excellent guiding algorithms nowadays?

[AdamJL]

Great video about how harmonic drives work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QidXf9pFYo

[Hercules.Steel]

Wow. That was really interesting. Thx

[Tinderboxsky]

Thanks for the heads up. Fascinating.