The Cheapest ZWO Setup Ever! - Testing the New 585MC Air Smart Camera
ZWO’s new ASI585MC Air with integrated ASIAIR is here—a compact, all-in-one cooled camera designed for astrophotographers who want a minimal, cable-free setup. In this video, I tes...
Excellent review as always.
Still a newbie here, I like to stream with Seestar and using my 8SE. Instead of using my phone camera could I use this and mirror the image to my laptop? mainly for planets, stars
I don’t see how the Seestar fits into the image but yes you could use this and either run an emulator (on windows), run the app natively (on the Mac) or mirror your phone display on the screen
@the_space_koala Thanks, Sorry, I was only referring to using it with the 8SE. I could have worded that better.
i see only one model!
Hello again. As a ZWO 2600 owner, I decided to add this to my collection. I noticed that the sweet spot for the HCG is 252. Is that the gain you used? As always, excellent video. I appreciate your work.
Yes that’s exactly what I used - it’s where the camera switches to high conversion gain
@the_space_koala GMTA! Awesome. Thanks for the reply.
Hi What is tripod is that?
it's the TC40
I was thinking about filters, thank you for covering that.
Im confused. I setup a brand new am5n and a 585 air. On my iPad in the asiair app when I go to focus all I see is noise. Im using an Askar 71F telescope. I first focused with my eyepiece and then put the camera on. Im pointing at Polaris. Im at 34n latitude. When I try to polar align it tells me it sees anywhere from 12 to 1200 stars but cannot plate solve. Focal length is 490. It appears as if it's just not in focus. I dont have an electronic focuser. I put the app in focus mode and manually try to focus but all I see is noise. Help. Please.
hi Steven I just saw your other comment you left on the 2600MC video. I can only repeat the advice - try to focus on the Moon first or during the daytime on something remote. When you're relatively close, it will be easy to focus also on the stars. An electronic focuser would not solve your issue at this stage, as those also require the stars to be mostly visible first. If you still see nothing, perhaps you can take a picture shining in a flashlight into the telescope and taking a picture - ensuring light is going through?
Crazy how much the prices have gone up since then, only 8 months later.
are you in the US? I'm afraid you see some tariff impact, the prices on ZWO's side haven't changed
Hi Luca, At 5:29 minutes you show two separate cable inputs - are these two separate power supplies? I thought it would be possible to power the AM5N with a shorter cable direct from the ASI Air panel on the ZWO 585MC Air. I have just bought almost exactly this setup (AM5N vs AM3N for my 8" EDGE HD) based mainly on your review and have got myself very confused over cable attachments. Those supplied do not match exactly your cables - your cables having 'in-line' units (I'm no electrician - what are these - do they stabilise the through-put?) and those supplied do not. Also, I shall be atatching a single dew-heater splitter/control plus heat strip from Kendrick (old, but it works) as well.
the angle at 5:29 is a litle misleading. There is only 1 cable input, the other bit you see is the antenna of the 585 Air! You only need 1 input cable, the other plug can be used as an output to power your other devices. As you purchased the AM5N it also has through the saddle cabling, so if you power the mount and the camera separately, you also get an additional power output on the mount in addition to the camera
Thanks for the video, i really enjoy your videos. Quick question, what about using it with an Hyperstar. Pixel size yields very compatible sampling and also i would say goodbye to Flex inherent in all pre-edge celestron like my C11. Thanks for any comments.
yeah it will work just fine :) you'll want to straighten out the antenna so it's not in front of the scope :D
It’s NOT a cheapest setup!
what would be cheaper?
Hi Luca, I'm an Italian amateur astronomer and I've been following some of your content, which I find very interesting and well-written. I recently received the ASI 585 MC Air, unfortunately at the moment I can only use it with a TS 115/800 refractor, but I'm largely oversampled. This is a camera for short focal lengths... keep it up and greetings from Abruzzo. 🙂👋
I never worried about sampling that much unless it came to planetary photography. Your ideal sampling will be different literally every night, or throughout the night, nobody can keep up with that :D of course I see your point but what I am saying is, just shoot the stars and enjoy the telescope you already have! :)
Thanks
With the sensor being so small in this camera, would I get away without using a field Flattener with a 72ED DS-Pro? For a newby, I'm trying to create a setup that is very simple and usable.
common sense dictates it may be fine, but I wouldn't be able to advise you as I have never tested anything like this. Keep in mind while the sensor is small, the tiny pixels mean optical imperfections *will* show up in the images
You are so generous with your time SK! I will try the setup without a reducer/flattener to try to simplify the setup. If it gives problems, I'll get one ordered. Thanks!
2" only filter? Not 1.25"?
No, unfortunately those would then cover the guide sensor
@the_space_koalaThank you, you are so generous with your time 👍
Hello. I watched this video and I regularly use a system that's almost the same. The only difference is that the telescope tube is an 'SV555.' Thank you, Luca.
Agree on that, hope their next camera version comes with the guiding chip on the right side of the main chip, like SBIG ST7 have. The Guiding chip should be as close to center as possible.
Hi Luca many thanks for the review, do you know if the hdr has been implemented in the firmware to bring the camera from 12 to 15 stops? Thanks
Would this be a cool camera to match up with a Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED and a Star Adventurer GTi? It seems great to me 👍
sure, why not? I made a "build your own smart telescope" video with this camera and I think I mentioned the SA GTI as one of the options there for the mount!
Astrophotography is to Photography as Modular Synthesis is to Music