A heavy payload test of the new ZWO AM3

She has finally arrived. And that just at the time when it was supposed to be clear here in the Black Forest for 6 nights in a row.

The AM3 harmonic drive mount could be tested in detail without a long waiting time.

To make the test really exciting, I completely exhausted the limits of the small, handy mount.
I put it into operation with my 8" RC carbon telescope. Even without accessories, it weighs a little over 8kg.
However, the mount carries the load very stable on my Celestron tripod, which is why I didn't use a counterweight.

On the first night I initially had minor difficulties with the guiding parameters.
My larger AM5 guided best with around 3-4 second recordings and relatively low aggressiveness.
That didn't work here at all. The RMS value was well over 1" and the stars showed lines after only short exposure times.
In fact, I was able to bring the mount to a similar level as the AM5 by setting the aggressiveness to 80% and reducing the exposure time to 0.5 seconds.
This enabled me to guide the first night at approx. 0.6". 180 seconds was the perfect exposure time with a focal length of 1080mm.

It was a bit windy the second night. Not much, but in principle it was not possible to guide in low winds with this small mount and this large telescope. Only when the wind died down around midnight was I able to continue exposing.
This shows that the mount is probably made and intended for somewhat smaller telescopes and a shorter focal length.
In the next few nights, when conditions were good, I was once again fully convinced of the concept of AM mounts.
The guiding even got a little better, around 0.5". I only sorted out 2 pictures on nights 3-5 because of elongated stars.

Anyone who has read my test with the Star adventurer gti knows that these are incredible numbers and this shows what you are paying the relatively high price for.
Overall, I had fewer problems with the AM3 than with the AM5. It is well made, works quietly and precisely and is super portable.

Here is the resulting recording:
IC1396 in SHO with 615x180 seconds (30.7h) taken with the ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro Mono at -10° and gain 139. TS-Optics RC8 Carbon with 0.67x Reducer