Skywatcher Wave 150i

[AstroJunk]

Here it is, in the flesh!

At least it's not raining so I can give it a quick whirl on some landscape objects. I have to say it's pretty well put together and whisper quiet even on max slew. Being strain wave, it's rock solid too which makes ultra-fine focussing manually a breeze so will be a big help for my solar work.

Looking forward to getting to know the mount better but so far so good, and FYI, the superb cable management was the thing that caused me to pick this over the many very capable alternatives.

[Pasko]

Congrats! Very nice. I have the OG AM5 and was tempted to upgrade to something with better cable management. How well has it been guiding so far? Would love to see it head to head comparison between this the AM5 and AM5N.

BTW I like your DIY mounting plate :)

[AstroJunk]

Thanks, given the weather, it may be some time before I get to find out how well it guides! and fortunately for me, mounting it atop my pier was super simple with some stainless bolts and left over hardwood from a cabinetry project!

[AstroJunk]

Finally had a clear night to play. One thing for sure, I need a lot of short USB and power cables to properly use the ports on the head.

It's probably an unfair screen grab from my ASIAir as I haven't actually polar aligned yet, so the guiding will be chasing drift, but even so, everything seemed to be doing just fine using a 25mm guide scope and 120MM camera via the ST4 port.

I was a bit shocked just how quickly the mount slews to targets, it's very impressive and so quiet too making it an absolute pleasure to use. I'm more impressed than I thought I would be.

[AstroJunk]

And in preparation for tonight's session, with larger guide scope, watch this: https://youtu.be/EsfgwJpLy1U

[h0ughy]

Well I have just bought myself an early-ish Christmas present. I got a zwo cf40 and pier extension . I have also bought the 150i and I bought a new camera 585 mcpro, guide camera and asiair plus to go with my redcat51. I also got the counterweight set just in case and I thought outside the box and got a synscan hand controller for when I wish to use solar scopes and other camera gear. You're a very bad influence......

Would really appreciate how you setup the asiair and the other bits. As you know for me it's way out of my comfort zone. How did you go for cables and power supply?

[AstroJunk]

Welcome to the bleeding edge - Although it's a familiar place for us as we both had the first ever EQ8's!

The 2.5mm plugs are a pain, but adaptors from Jaycar allowed me to use my normal cabling and gradually I will re solder some existing cables to be a little neater. I don't have any serious power drains with my camera but still run one lead to the camera, the other to the ASIAir, but from a previous set up I have run the camera Power from the Air too.

The synscan controller is a good idea, the wireless phone app is a great way to drive the scope into the pier by accident and it hits pretty hard - you can do the same with the hand controller, but it is easier to recover from. The ASIAir is really easy to set up, plug it into the cradle USB and Jumper the USB on the mount so that the ASIAir controls and guides through it, no need for the ST4 cable. The whole thing is nice and neat with no cables loose from the scope at all now as per picture.

Not that I've seen much sky since it arrived - I still need to polar align it properly and really test out guiding, I may have a go later.

[h0ughy]

Thanks for the prompt response. Cable warfare coming soon for me I think. I think most of it is at the post office, I see where they have apparently called in to attempt delivery. Bugger I was down the back.

Stinking hot day here, with a chance of pestilence and calamity later in the week.

[h0ughy]

But the hinode guider used st4 connection

[AstroJunk]

Then that ST4 on the saddle will come in very handy - It's one of the reasons why I chose it over the AM5 or smaller Wave 100. Better too many options than too few :thumbsup:

I do love being able to swap out Solar for the SCT with minimum of fuss. I don't currently use a counterweight with the scopes being relatively small and on a pier, but certainly would on a tripod for peace of mind.

[DarthRiker]

I have a C8 SCT with Celestron f/6.3 Reducer, ASI294MC Pro camera and HEQ5 Pro mount. All controlled with an ASIAIR Plus 32GB.

At the moment I can do unguided EAA with no more than 30s exposures for at most 30 minutes duration in Live Mode for Live Stacking.

Would I be able to use the Skywatcher Wave 150i to do unguided EAA?

I have been told that I should be able to to unguided EAA with the AM5N with my setup - I'm just wondering if I can do that with other strain wave/harmonic mounts like the Skywatcher Wave 150i and the iOptron HAE29 (non-EC version).

[AstroJunk]

Any equatorial mount is fine for EAA, the key is not the mount but the polar alignment. I had a permanently mounted scope with a clear south which I polar aligned to arc second accuracy using Sharp Cap and it would track unguided for hours.

Strain wave mounts by their nature have more periodic error than a conventional GEM, but short exposures will compensate for that.

Of course, with the equipment you are using, which is not far of the kit I use, a small investment in a guide scope and camera will allow for much longer sessions without the need for such precise polar alignment.

[JohnA]

is that the 8 or 9.25?
I just ordered the 150i and will mount the 9.25 on it with asiair eaf and 678 camera and was wondering if i will need the counterweight to go with it.

Your looks like it handles the load with ease.

I know i am within the 15kg limit with no counterweight but just want to be sure

[h0ughy]

Do yourself a favour and put the counterweight bar and weight on. It's not fixed on a bulletproof grounded pier it will tip over.

[JohnA]

Thanks, i'll order it. I am also going to add the ecoflow river 2 battery to the bottom of the tripod bag to weight the tripod down also. As the battery weighs 7.6 kilos, so should help keep it steady i assume

[h0ughy]

I bought a cheap 8kg kettle weight to put in the bag. Something easy to grab and no sharp edges. Admittedly I am only slinging around a wo redcat at the moment but tripod stability is at mind and a little bit of wind

[JohnA]

would i be better off then also grabbing a heavy duty tripod like the one used with the skywatcher eq6 for those windy days or for the heavier load and use the carbon tripod with only lighter loads.

I believe the zwo pier can bolt straight onto the eq6 tripod. Alternatively, i have the heavy duty 2" steel tripod that came with the nexstar evolution925, so could mod that to suit the pier and wave150i

[JohnA]

Well i set mine up last night, and did a trial in the garage without the counterweights.
Seemed to handle it with ease and at no time did I feel the tripod was going to tip over.
If I get time tonight, I'll take it out and give it a proper run

So much nicer to only have to carry a few kilos rather them 20+ when setting up

Does anyone bother balancing it as per the instructions?

[Leo.G]

Jonathan I love your hardwood mounting.
I was going to ask if there's any variance with temperature then I remembered why the best houses were made with timber frames not steel (steel frames are noisy, aluminium cladding is worse every time the sun goes behind a cloud (like a machine gun going off), I lived in a house as temporary accommodation for 6 weeks that had aluminium cladding) and why the best mounts are made with timber.
I have 1/2 inch steel plate to do the upper platform for my pier when I get the thing cemented in if ever (don't ask), instead of boring holes in the steel plate. I could find some old hardwood planking laying around at a friends farm he hasn't yet burnt in winter (thankfully he's one of these "that's too good to burn", but not much fits into that category).


A strain-wave mount I have to leave in the hands of the lotto Gods but weirder things have happened, or so I'm told.

[Zuts]

I have an am5 with carbon fibre tripod. I also have an EQ6 tripod. Unfotunately when I checked 1 year ago the ZWO tripod extension only supports the EQ5 tripod (ZWO include a small adaptor for this). If you want to use an EQ6 tripod you need to buy another third party adaptor to connect to the ZWO tripod extension and then to the EQ6.

[JohnA]

it would seem skywatcher have made a pier to suit the eq6 tripod though, maybe thats the one to get if you already have the eq6

https://www.highpointscientific.com/sky-watcher-wave-to-eq6-tripod-adapter-pier-extension

[AstroJunk]

Not me, but my kit is fairly light weight and on a pier. Might be prudent on a tripod.

[AstroJunk]

Thanks, I think it looks nice and it certainly works well. I could have had a metal plate fabricated, but if I don't make use of my stash of left over bits and bobs I may be forced to throw them all out!

[Leo.G]

I know the feeling but at 65 I'm starting to question exactly how much junk one man should have and throwing a lot of stuff out (or taking it to the local tip shop for someone else to collect).
But I am going to rebuild my old motorbike and 64 Austin Healey Sprite one day.

[JohnA]

today i spent the day connecting it all up to the pc to test that it all works.
a little bit of mucking about with drivers etc, then constantly losing connection to the camera (which turned out to be the long 5mtr usb cable from the powered usb hub.. As soon as i removed that and put a 3mtr cable in its place it all worked perfectly.

The mount with the zwo carbon tripod and zwo pier weight next to nothing as a hole, and can handle that c925 with ease by the looks of things. At no point did it look like the tripod was unstable, but i agree, i wouldnt use it for very long imaging sessions in a windy environment.

I now need to just clean up the cables a bit and work out how to route everything neatly and looking forward to getting it out in the field

Here it is in the shed

[AstroJunk]

I've just downsized and had to sell my triumph and MGB. Toy's are important!

[AstroJunk]

Looks very smart indeed, a few kg of weight in the sling should keep you out of trouble!

[Pasko]

Hi John,

I was wondering how the mount has been going since you've had it a few months. I'm tossing up between this and the AM5N since they are close in price. Thank you

[AstroJunk]

Whilst I've not had nearly as much use as I would have liked due to the weather, I've certainly got no buyers remorse. I especially like the cable management solution although the oddly sized power plugs required me to get some adaptors initially before re-terminating some leads.

It is a little chunky compared to the AM5 but as a consequence has more capacity when counterweighted should that be a factor but either mount will chuck a scope around with ease.

The only extra features that the 150i has are the ability to balance the axes, not something I'm overly worried about, but if you plan to max out the capacity, may be useful, and a cable managed ST4 Port. These days the ST4 port is all but redundant, but there are some stand-alone guiders that need one.

[JohnA]

Pascal, i have really been enjoying it. It is brilliant in use, super quiet and slews nice and fast.
With the c9 loaded on it using the ZWO carbon tripod and pier it tracks brilliantly even without the counterweight. What i did notice though, its doing more work without the counteweight and balanced, that it does with. Notice it on battery use.

I like you was tossing up between the 2 and decided on the wave150i due to its slightly higher payload capacity without counterweights, and a video i watched on the AM5N slipping with a very heavy load, think it was with a c11 or 14, ill have to find the video again. The 150i seemed to handle it with ease. Though this video was from skywatcher, so take that with a grain of salt i suppose

The other thing i wasnt a fan of was the limit of only a 5kg counterweight on the AM5N. It may be enough, but i know when i use the 5 kg counterweight with my c9, its almost at the bottom of the rod, so a heavier payload would need more which ZWO do not recommend

[Pasko]

Thanks John and Johnathan for your replies. Very helpful.

Indeed that is something very nice to have the flexibility to add more counterweight in the future if one day fortunate enough to own a monster scope (I can only dream). But it gives me more reassurance that the counterweight bar wont easily strip off from its attachment on the RA section. I haven't seen a teardown of this section of the mount to see how they have reenforced the attachment but presuming the SW engineers have done their due diligence. Made me think about this after I saw this video by James Lamb on his AM5N https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDbtMD-ihJI&t=1s