First Light w/ The ZWO FF65 APO Telescope and AM3 Mount - 08 Apr 2025
FF65 APO, AM3 and ASI585MC Pro
This past Friday I received my new (and first) telescope kit from Agena Astro; A ZWO FF65 APO f/6.4 Quintuplet Flat-Field Refractor, AM3 Strain Wave Equatorial Mount, TC40 Tripod, and 160mm Pier Extension Kit. With my sale of a Sony a1 + 100-400mm lens I was able to purchase a ZWO ASI2600 MC Duo Camera, ZWO ASI585MC Pro Camera, Askar Colourmetric D1&D2 Duo Narrowband Filter Set, and an Optalong L-Pro Light Pollution Filter. I also purchased a Bluetti AC70 1000W/768Wh Power Station for imaging away from electrical sources.
I was initially looking to purchase the AM5N Mount due to its reputation and popularity but cost was preventing me from pulling the trigger. I then decided I would purchase the very popular new Askar 71F 71mm f/6.9 Quadruplet Flat-field Refractor ($599) and use my Sony a1 and iOptron SkyGuider Pro until I could afford a better setup. But, the 71F was out of stock everywhere, so I looked for similar-quality scope. The Askar 65PHQ f/6.4 Quintuplet Flat-Field Refractor ($899) was available, as was the identical ZWO FF65 APO f/6.4 Quintuplet Flat-Field Refractor ($899). ZWO was also offering a bundle with this scope, the AM3 Strainwave Mount, TC40 Tripod, and Pier Extension that offered a travel-friendly imaging package at a very attractive price ($2800) so I pulled the trigger (I got the last one in stock from Agena Astro).
On a lark I decided to see if I could get some money for my Sony a1 and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS Lens and was pleasantly surprised when it sold within minutes on FredMiranda.com. I took those funds and purchased the cameras/filters once the items were shipped and received by their new owners.
Skies were cloudless this afternoon and I was frustrated because my cameras / filters were not due to arrive until tomorrow. But, a late-afternoon email indicated that they would arrive today so I would have a chance to try out the new scope / mount / tripod / camera / filter! At 5 pm the FedEx guy dropped off a package and I was off and running.
Since I had shot the M101 Pinwheel Galaxy last evening I thought I would try for it again tonight using both the Seestar S50 and the FF65 APO Telescope. So I opted to unpack the ASI585 MC Pro camera; with its 1/1.2" (11.2mm x 6.3mm) sensor this camera gives me about the same FOV as the Seestar S50.
Connecting it to the FF65 APO was relatively straightforward; the M54 connection to the scope had to be stopped down to M42 so I connected the adapters that came with the camera. From the camera to the back of the scope I had the following: M42M-to-M42F, M42M-M42M, M42F-M48F, M48 Filter Holder-M48F, and M48M-M54F to scope.
With the scope pointed out the window toward the neighbor's house I was able to focus on their siding, so I thought I was good w/ back focus. However, when I took the scope out onto the porch and tried focusing on trees a half-mile away I was able to achieve focus with only about 2 mm to spare before the scope was racked all the way in. So I removed the M42F-M48F adapter from the adapter train and was able to focus on stars with the scope racked out to about 2.8 cm.
At about 8 pm (still light) I took the scope onto the driveway and set it up pointing toward N and Polaris. I connected the 12V 5A power cord from the AC port on the AC70 to the power input on the ASIAir Plus. I plugged aDC 12V-to-5.5x2.1mm jackthat plugged into the AM3 Mount. The hand-controller was used to return the mount to Home position whenever necessary. The camera was powered by the ASIAir Plus using a 12v 2.1mm jack and communication was via a USB A cable from camera to USB 3.0 on the ASIAir Plus. A dew heater strap on the scope was plugged into the USB 2.0 on the ASIAir Plus. The ASI120MM Guide Camera and F34 (120mm FL) Guide Scope was plugged into the ASIAir Plus using the other USB 3.0 port.
With time before darkness I decided to set up the ASIAir Plus Autorun to capture 20x180sec Dark Frames and 50x0.001sec Bias Frames. Once they were finished I decided to capture 50 Flat Frames using a white panel display on the iPad Mini (which, btw, kept wigging out when I tried to lay it on the scope).
Once the calibration frames were captured I spent time focusing the scope to capture stars using the 585MC. Once focus was achieved I performed a Polar Alignment using the PA Routine on the ASIAir. Adjusting the RA and DEC was much easier compared to the iOptron SGP and I was able to quickly get under 1 arc minute error.
Next step was to calibrate the Guide Scope. It is recommended to slew the scope to the E-W Equatorial Line on the side of the N-S Meridian that your object is located. In my case M 101 The Pinwheel Galaxy is located in the NE sky so pointed the scope toward the bright star Alphard; this gave me a chance to use the Bahtinov Mask to verify critical focus of the scope. Once Guide Calibration completed and I was able to get a Total Guiding Error less than 0.5 arc-seconds on the AM3.
I then returned the scope to Home position, and then slew toward M 101. I set up Autorun to capture 150x180sec images. Restarting autoguiding I began to capture images of M 101 at 9:55 pm!
At 3 am I woke up and checked the iPad Pro where I was monitoring the ASIAir Plus. The scope was on photo 135/150 and images still looked sharp. Best of all I was able to perform a Meridian Flip without affecting image quality or causing equipment harm (tangled cords, etc.). The Autorun completed just minutes after 6 am when I went outside to bring the rig in. Reviewing images I would only see 3 rejectable frames caused by unknown vibration (wind?).
This is my first captured frame from the FF65 APO and the AM3 (180 sec at Gain 252):
Stars are sharp and round! The galaxy is even visible. This is the stacked / autostretched image (147x180s) from Siril using the OSC Preprocessing script:
What immediately caught my attention was the lack of gradients in the image and the uniform background with little noise (images from the Sony a1 show concentric rings radiating from the center of the sensor and gradually dimming toward the edges). I am elated! Stars are also round and sharp and the galaxy is well-exposed. I would process the image in Siril, GraXpert, Cosmic Clarity and Photoshop and come up with this final image:
I'm looking forward to more images with this setup, and also trying the new ASI2600 MC Duo with the Duo Narrowband Filter Set (Askar D1 and D2).
Stay tuned...