Image of the day

Captured by
Terry Wood

Jupiter (clearer) Nov 5th 2023 w/Mewlon 180c

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

Celestron CG-5GT Mount

Started by gcunniff, 06/17/2011 03:37AM
Posted 06/17/2011 03:37AM Opening Post
I'm looking for opinions on this motorized equatorial mount. Seems like a good value at $615 (and free shipping) through OPT. The mount features 2" steel dia. tripod and holds up to 35 lbs. By contrast, the Orion Atlas features 2" dia. tripod and holds up to 40 lbs - and costs $800 more.

One difference that I noticed in the literature for these mounts is that the Atlas is capable of 9 different slew speeds, 3 tracking speeds, backlash compensation, and periodic error correction. The Celestron doesn't mention any of these items - it has a slew speed of 4 degrees. As such, it would seem that the Orion would be a better choice for astrophotography.

Anyway, I would be interested in opinions on either one of these mounts.
Posted 06/17/2011 08:08PM #1
Gregory Cunniff said:

I'm looking for opinions on this motorized equatorial mount. Seems like a good value at $615 (and free shipping) through OPT. The mount features 2" steel dia. tripod and holds up to 35 lbs. By contrast, the Orion Atlas features 2" dia. tripod and holds up to 40 lbs - and costs $800 more.

One difference that I noticed in the literature for these mounts is that the Atlas is capable of 9 different slew speeds, 3 tracking speeds, backlash compensation, and periodic error correction. The Celestron doesn't mention any of these items - it has a slew speed of 4 degrees. As such, it would seem that the Orion would be a better choice for astrophotography.

Anyway, I would be interested in opinions on either one of these mounts.

Hopefully Uncle Rod will chime in here but the CG-5 ASGT does have 9 different slewing speeds and I would guess the three different tracking speeds.

35lbs is a lot of weight for a CG-5, my 8 inch F/5 Newtonian is near what I consider the max for visual, it weighs around 20lbs. I bought some rings and tried mounting my 30lb 10 inch Dob, never even took it outside.

What telescope are you mounting?

Jon
Posted 06/20/2011 11:45PM #2
Hi Gregory,

I've used a CG-5AGT for a few years and it is actually a very good instrument for astrophotography, provided the scope and instrumentation is within it's weight limits. It is an extremely portable and easy to set up mount. It's also very easy to use. The polar alignment scope is very helpful as well.

Here are 3 images with a TV-101 using it:

http://gallery.me.com/russ92069#100195&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=2

It is an incredible deal in my opinion.