RASC Hamilton Pondering Celestron CG5 Mount - Any Tips / Suggestions ?

[David MacMillan]

I purchased my Stellarvue 110ED refractor with that company’s heavy duty surveyor trip and M2 alt-az mount.  This setup is quite portable, however unless you know the skies like the back of your hand (or better !!) it presents some challenges in some circumstances:
  a.. at recent Binbrook Conservation Area cub-scout event, I was going “nudge-nudge” about every 2nd or 3rd little person to make sure all got a reasonably centred view of the moon (used a 24mm / 68 degree AFOV eyepiece on this F7 OTA) 
  b.. I had a “Galileo moment” that night, seeing my first Messier object, but all credit due to Gary Colwell and his rather impressive Takahashi set-up !!
In order to provide go-to / equatorial tracking for my OTA, Stellarvue recommends two of Celestron’s mounts: CG5 or CGEM.  There are substantial differences between these mounts:
  a.. CG5 - more portable / cheaper 
  b.. CGEM - much heavier & more stable / handles more payload / better tracking / ~ double the cost of a CG5
If you look at reviews on both of these mounts, you’ll find the good, the bad and the ugly.  From what I can piece together, quality control for the CG5 might be a bit more hit / miss, and you might need to do some serious tune up to what comes “out of the box”.

I should add that I’m not yet into astrophotography (but never say never!!) and would be doing observing only for the next 2 – 3 years.

Thoughts ??

-David MacMillan
Milton
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