Pegasus Astro NYX 101 Mount Overview and First Impressions

Hello! Matt here with Telescopes Canada

Today we are going to take a look at the Pegasus NYX-101 Strain wave mount and carbon fiber tripod. Named after the ancient Greek goddess of the Night Pegasus have made their first entry into the mount market with the NYX-101 mount. This mount uses strain wave drives, also known as harmonic drives, on both the RA and DEC axis. This design ensures backlash-free operation providing high torque at high payloads. 

The mount weighs only 6.4kg or 14lbs and is capable of carrying 20kg or 44lbs without a counterweight and up to 30kg or 66lbs with a counterweight. This provides enough head room for a wide range of equipment. You can put a Celestron 11-inch EdgeHD on this mount without the need for a counterweight! 
 

The mount has all of the things you would expect for a mount in this class. A dual saddle that accepts both vixen and Losmandy style dovetails. USB connectivity. Smooth and secure adjustment knobs for both altitude and azimuth. On top of this it also has a built in Pole Master adapter to easily attach a Pole Master camera making polar alignment a breeze. Secure power in and a power out passthrough providing up to 7amps of power for your accessories. I use this to power my Pegasus Powerbox Advanced which then distributes power to all of my gear. 

It also features built-in wi-fi and smart phone control with the Pegasus Unity app. Pegasus have also developed Unity software for Windows that provides full control over the mount and all of it’s settings. The Unity platform is a breath of fresh air in this hobby. A single platform that provides all of the drivers, updates, and control for ALL of Pegasus’s devices. I’m a huge fan of Pegasus. Between my two rigs I use their Focus Cube’s, PowerBox’s, Falcon Rotator, Meteo Uranus Sensor, Flat panel, and now the NYX. They are all seamlessly controlled and managed inside the Unity platform. Kudos to Pegasus for putting so much thought and effort into unifying the entire experience.

The companion carbon fiber tripod is well thought out. They’ve opted for a wider stance allowing the legs to spread out further for a more stable platform. The mount head can be easily secured directly to the tripod with the easy release adapter, or you can use an optional pier extension to help avoid tripod crashes. In most cases I would consider the pier extension to be a necessary add-on. The tripod is very stable and definitely capable of carrying the payloads it’s designed for.

I’ve had the pleasure of using the NYX and Carbon Fiber tripod over the last month and I have to say that I am very impressed. It is very well designed and performs as expected. It can operate in EQ and ALT/AZ modes for both astrophotography and visual work respectively. With a decent polar alignment, it tracks extremely well, and you can expect guiding numbers around 0.5 RMS in normal seeing conditions. 
 

The physical markings on both the RA and DEC axis make it very easy to find and set the zero position. Something I wish more manufacturers would do! Adjusting Altitude and Azimuth is very smooth and easy. If you require a little extra leverage, you can use the provided bar, although I haven’t found a need for it.  Once aligned you lock down the tension levers and tighten the altitude screws with the provided allen key. Although secure it seems a bit redundant to me to have to lock down the altitude with both the levers and the screws. But I suppose it adds another layer of security. Another minor annoyance is that you need to completely remove the altitude and azimuth locking levers to fit the mount back in its case. It would be nice if you didn’t have to do that every time. This amounts to nothing more than a minor inconvenience. Not a big deal overall.

The mobile unity app used to directly control the mount via wi-fi does a good enough job. It is very responsive to your inputs and provides a lot of functionality for a mobile app. Even providing a built-in object database for selecting and slewing to different targets. The weak point here is connectivity range. You need to be right beside the mount for it to stay connected. If you wander too far away, it will disconnect and most times you will need to go through the reconnection process to re-establish your connection. However, it is designed to be used at the mount, which it does very well. 

At a price of just under $4000 Canadian it is a bit of a jump from something like ZWO’s AM5 but it really is in a class of it’s own. The NYX could easily be considered an observatory grade mount and yet still be extremely portable when on the go. Pegasus are clearly very passionate about astronomy and put a lot of thought and care into designing their products. This is evident with their first entry into the mount market.

Overall, this mount is very impressive, and I have no hesitation recommending it. 
 

To find out more about the NYX you can visit us at telescopescanada.ca
 

Thanks for watching and keep looking up!