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Celestron CG-5 Mount
| Brand | Celestron |
| Part Number | |
| Availability | available |
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Product Info
Overview
Reviews
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Jun 4, 2012
Celestron Advanced CG-5 Mount
Pros:Great for beginner. Good bang for the buck. Provides accurate Go-Tos, tracking, and autoguidiing.
Cons:Not intended for long exposure, high FL imagining. Has weight limitations.
Comments:I bought this mount for a beginners astrophotography mount and it has fulfilled its purpose well. I image with a 6" F/9 RC imaging scope and it is a decent combination. It works well with imaging tubes of about 20lbs and less. Any more and you start getting tracking issues. For an experiment I tried moving a 30lb OTA and it moves it well but sounds like that is its limit for the mount
Bottom Line: Would you recommend this item? Yes
The mount is capable of auto guiding as I have hooked my Orion SSAG to it successfully driven by PHD guiding. The maximum image exposure I have gone with this mount is about 5min with a 1350mm FL. I suspect 10-15min exposures are possible with a hyper tune or small FL scope. I did a 15min exposure with my DSLR and Canon 55mm lens and detected no star trails.
The quality of the mount is good. Not great, but good. 2" stainless legs provide great stability. I have had a few plastic parts pop off the EQ head but nothing to hurt the performance of the mount. I would recommend this mount for a beginner astrophotographer with imaging tubes less than 15-20lbs and small FLs. Also the GO-TOs are spot on.Mar 15, 2008A workhorse of a mount...
Pros:Heavy duty
Cons:None
Comments:This mount came with my Celestron C6 RGT, but I have really put it to work since owning it. I have used this mount with the 6" refractor, an 80mm refractor, a Coronado PST, an 8" reflector, and a 10" reflector. Without any guiding help, you can only collect data for about 80 or 90 seconds. But that can be extended greatly when auto-guiding.
Bottom Line: Would you recommend this item? YesJan 29, 2008Excuse Me?
Pros:Accuracy and build at that price.
Cons:Hand unit reputedly suffers in extreme cold and can act crazy/sluggish, although I haven't found problem with mine.
Comments:Reading over the other reviews, you would think this unit is junk. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This unit has no problem carrying 20lb tubes, and the GOTO inaccuracy reported in other reviews, especially in a unit this inexpensive, is hard to fathom. Mine consistently puts targets in my field of view at 100x!
Bottom Line: Would you recommend this item? Yes
I got mine as part of the C6S-GT unit I bought. The legs are 2" steel - you could make a chair out of this mount and not worry about it collapsing. It is extremely quiet when tracking, but not so when slewing. But that is not a problem for me where I live. Even if you buy this mount as a separate unit (without scope), it is definitely a best buy.Sep 20, 2007Celestron CG-5 Mount
Pros:Serviceable; Low cost; Easily found on secondary market.
Cons:Stiff RA movement; Vibration prone, due to light aluminum legs.
Comments:I had read and heard most of the horror stories surrounding the Celestron CG-5 Eq mount, but decided to give the new and improved version a try. This newer mount received the new ball bearings assembly for the right ascension movement. Even though the movement in the RA axis had improved, I decided to tear it down and relube the thing. There was no need to relube the declination axis as it was pretty smooth. Did the relube job help? Well, just a little.....it was still somewhat stiff and on colder nights it was darn near impossible to move at all without a good shove.
Bottom Line: Would you recommend this item? Yes
Replacing the light extruded aluminum legs with solid oak ones was a great improvement in the stability realm, but it did add quite a bit of weight to the total package. In reality, I seldom use this mount unless I'm doing visual observing and need to track. My Desert Sky Astro DSV-1 alt-azimuth mount is my platform of choice these days.
If you're in need of an EQ mount, I would probably pass on the CG-5, and go for a Vixen or Losmandy.Jul 24, 2007Celestron CG-5 Equatorial Mount
Pros:Can be re-built
Cons:Not worth the money; Go for a used one if you have to have.
Comments:The CG-5 EQ mount is the newest generation of Celestron German mounts. I can't tell you how disappointed in it I am. At $299.95 new it just doesn't perform as it should. If you have a telescope larger than a 100mm refractor or a 114mm reflector don't buy or use it. It just doesn't work well out of the box, the tripod being the main fault. I have tuned it as best as I can and find it is only good for 6 to 8 pound loads and then it is kind of iffy at best. Don't use this mount for any photography - it just won't work and the results are poor at best. I was very disappointed to say the least. Dumped this puppy and even now I use my CG-3. This mount is not worth 300 dollars unless you like rebuilding it from the ground up.
Bottom Line: Would you recommend this item? NoSort by
