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Posts Tagged 'pegasusastro'

Pegasus Astro Smart Eye – the new electronic eyepiece!

February 27 2026, Jan Ströher

Now available: The SmartEye from PegasusAstro

What is the “SmartEye” actually?
It is the first smart eyepiece with technology similar to that of smart telescopes – except that you can use any of your existing telescopes with this eyepiece. It is therefore universally applicable and can be used in Newtonian telescopes, refractors, Schmidt-Cassegrains and Maksutovs, provided that a 2” focuser is available on the devices. In contrast to conventional eyepieces, the SmartEye has a built-in camera sensor, namely the Sony IMX533 Color, which you already know from the ZWO ASI 533MC Pro camera. As a result, color images of nebulae, galaxies and star clusters are created before your eyes, just like with a smart telescope. These can then also be saved, so that you get instant astrophotos at the same time as the live observation is happening.

By using the SmartEye on any telescope different magnifications and fields of view can be realized. The built-in Sony camera chip is an ideal sensor for dim DeepSky objects. It has a high resolution thanks to its 3.76 µm pixels and shows a high sensitivity (QE approx. 80%). With a 90° field of view, the SmartEye itself also offers a wide-angle viewing experience.

For more information, prices and ordering options, please visit our shop!

Tags: eyepieces, Astrophotography, oberservation, PegasusAstro
Posted in New Products|New Products »

Mounts with strain wave gear from ZWO, iOptron and PegasusAstro

April 19 2024, Stefan Taube

Innovative manufacturers have been offering astronomical mounts with a special drive design for a few years now. You can find these in the shop under the Harmonic / Strainwave link.

These mounts are equipped with a so-called strain wave gear. It is also known under the protected brand name Harmonic Drive.

The advantages are:

High load capacity with low dead weight
High torsional rigidity: no counterweights required
Relatively inexpensive, as industry standard
No swivelling error (“backlash”)
Very high reduction ratio
Compact dimensions
Maintenance-free and backlash-free in the long term

The strain wave gear is used for the axes of industrial robots, among other things. It is therefore a standard and does not need to be specially developed and built for astronomical mounts.

Although the periodic gearbox error is also high for strain wave gears, the error typical of worm shafts, which occurs when the direction of rotation changes (“backlash”), is eliminated. This means that the strain wave gear reacts immediately to the control impulses, so that the periodic error can be compensated very well by autoguiding.

For large mounts, such as the Skywatcher EQ-8, the mounts from 10Micron or the CGX-L from Celestron, a worm shaft is still the first choice, because optics with a long focal length require a very low periodic gear error and a counterweight cannot be dispensed with for heavy optics, even with a strain wave gear. In addition, the advantages of strain wave gears in terms of compactness, weight and price are lost as soon as a mount with a high load capacity is required.

There is therefore an ideal range of load capacity in which mounts with a strain wave gear can play to their strengths. The requirements for mobile astrophotography with small to medium-sized optics fall within this range. The harmonic mounts from brands like iOptron, PegasusAstro, RainbowAstro and ZWO are designed precisely for these requirements.

You can find all mounts with strain wave gear under the Harmonic / Strainwave link in the shop.