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

[Rick]

I owned a Celestron CG5 for a few years and it was good for visual
astronomy. It sounded like a coffee grinder but the 4-star alignment 2 east
and 2 west was good. If you decide to take the plunge and try imaging you
will need a sturdier mount is needed in my opinion.

 

You might want to look at the Sky Watcher EQ6 or the Orion Atlas. Both are
sturdy mounts, great value and will last a long time.  

 

Rick

 

  _____  

From: astronomers-bounces at hamiltonrasc.ca
[mailto:astronomers-bounces at hamiltonrasc.ca] On Behalf Of David MacMillan
Sent: Sunday, June 17, 2012 6:38 PM
To: astronomers at hamiltonrasc.ca
Subject: RASC Hamilton Pondering Celestron CG5 Mount - Any Tips /
Suggestions ?

 

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:

*	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) 
*	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:

*	CG5 - more portable / cheaper 
*	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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