CG-5 Mount Help

[BEYOND EARTH]

Does any one own a CG-5 or has used one? I cant seem to get the two star alignment process down. I've tried a number of times and cant get it to work. When I go out I do a rough polar alignment and then attempt to do the two star alignment with one calibration star, but still cant seem to get it to point to an object. I've went through the manual about 12 times and still no progress. I think the problem might be that fact that I do not know what star the mount wants me to look for actually looks like. I see many stars when looking through the finder and the OTA so I just pick the brightest one. I dont know... Any help would be great!

Thank you!

[spaceboy]

Is your location entered correctly into the handset ? If I remember correctly it doesn't ask you every time like synscan dose so it can some times be over looked.

[MarkSix]

As spaceboy suggests, is the location set correctly? And as a beginner like myself, I would suggest getting a Telrad or equivalent finder so that you know what you are looking at.

[spaceboy]

I would suggest getting a Telrad or equivalent finder so that you know what you are looking at.

Or a planisphere. These usually only cost a few quid and show all the bright stars for that particular night, time and date. There are always star atlases but probably pointless if you have GOTO.

[MarkSix]

+ using a smartphone app like google skymap or skyeye or similar might help. Some basic knowledge like the major constallations and some stars is necessary even when using a GOTO.

[BEYOND EARTH]

When I first turn on the mount it asked me for my location, but not any more. I though it would remember my location.. So how do I go about re entering my location. Also I think ill try out google skymap and see if that helps. Thank you all for your help!

[mallorcasaint]

It will use the last set location unless you press "undo" during the setup ( see the manual) and enter a new location. Remember your location needs to be entered as degrees and minutes not decimal. Also, when you are doing your alignment if you choose say, Vega as you alignment star then you MUST slew the scope to Vega. If you don't then you will never get alignment. You can use something like pUniverse on iPhone or there are android apps available, but you need to know what you are looking at.

[Carbon Brush]

Are you setting the clock/calendar correctly after power up?

Daylight saving setting? Can be confusing.

Date in American format? Had me thinking I had a dud CG5 at one point!

Usually the target star is the only bright one in the scope with a long FL eyepiece. The wider finder view can be more difficult as it can show several brightish stars.

I found that if I put the effort into the polar align, there is, as expected, less fiddle/nudge on the calibration stars.

When first learning the CG5 I used it in the house, in daylight. I used planetaium/sky software to determine the alt/az of the calibration stars at that time, then checked if the scope had gone somewhere near.

Hope there is something useful in there somewhere.

[JohnnyD333]

The mount chooses the best star for calibration, usually a bright well known star. I have owned a CG5 for about a year and no matter how good my polar alignment is, the mount never slews to the first GOTO star perfectly. It is always a little off, once you learn what star it wants and align the mount the GoTo will work. This is the reason why I use at least 4 stars to calibrate. The first calibration star is always off a bit, but by the time I am calibrating my fourth star it is spot on accurate.

Basically, if you scope doesnt slew to the first star perfectly, there is no need to panic. This is a reason that the mount allows you to adjust the telecope to the star while aligning.

[Matt2011]

Hi Johnny, I am still having problems with my set up and seriousluy thinking of trading my CG-5 GT mount for a Skywatcher FlexiTube 200P Dobsonian as the complicated and difficult set drives me mad and long set ups and this was my first Equatorial Mount and just cannot fathom it out but think its better for me if I got a Dobsonian as they are simpler and takes less time but the one I have in mind has a Auto Track with the simple small black handset.

[BEYOND EARTH]

Sounds good! Thank you again for all your help guys, U dont know what I would do with out this site!

[spaceboy]

I never did get on with my CG5-GT always finding it lacked the accuracy of the Synscan alternative. That and those noisy motors seen the back of mine but I must admit the features on the Nexstar HC are much better than Synscan.

[Matt2011]

I am fimding the set up to complicated and LONG lol on my Celestron CG5-GT mount and about to give up and find something that will take less time and not so complicated as I seem not to able to get on with these kind of mounts. I am a moon and planetary person but I was looking at possibly selling this mount with the SkySync GPS as well for £300 and then buying a Skywatcher 200p Flexi Tube Dobsonian but I am not sure what these scopes are like and how much maintanence they need as well and I have heard of collimation but not sure what that is and what it involves and how easy it is to do but I sooner would take the scope to an expert and pay to have any maintanence rather than do it myself but what is collimation and what would I need to do this and going back to the 200p is it any good for planets and the moon and what are the images like compared to my 127 Maksutov. Thanks:)

[x6gas]

I get on just fine with my CG5-GT, and can now align in about 10 minutes, once the mount is outside and set up.

I do have a polar scope, and make sure the mount is nice and level (and beware, I hear that the bubble levels on the mount aren't always accurate so worth checking with a good spirit level). That means that my alt generally doesn't need adjustment. I use the freeware program Polar Finder to check the correct position of Polaris for the time and my position and then align Polaris in the correct position in the finder scope.

Then I put the 'scope on the mount, undo the mount clutches and move the mount to a bright star using the finder scope. I then use the widest angle eyepiece I have (for me a 32mm) and roughly centre the star and ensure that the polar scope is accurately aligned with the scope. Obviously, you can do this in daylight but I find that the finder scope can get knocked out of alignment and it really helps to have it bang on.

Then move the mount to the index position and power up the mount. I do find that my CG5-GT handset doesn't remember the date and time for some reason (my CGEM DX is fine, and I think they are basically the same handset). Anyway, press UNDO and the handset will walk you through entering the location and time. Do make sure you have the basics right, like making sure that you enter "W" if you are West of London. Also, the handset uses the American standard of date in MM/DD/YYYY and at this time of year is universal time, standard.

I then run through the two-star align procedure. The handset chooses an alignment star for you. I use Stellarium, which I always have running on my Netbook in the field, to check that I know where the star is, if it is unfamilar. This star is pretty much always in the field of view of my finder and I use an illuiminate reticule 12.5mm eyepiece to centre the star. That EP is a generic rather than a branded one, but it's the best piece of astro kit I have ever bought. The second alignment star is then also always in the finder scope. I then add three calibration stars and by now these are so close to the centre of the field of view that it litterally takes seconds to do each one...

The alignment stars that the handset chooses will generally be really bright in the eyepiece and once you've done it a few times they are difficult to miss - but plenty of times in the past I am sure I've aligned on the wrong the stars and then things just go from bad to worse as your next star will be way off... If you are struggling to identify an alignment star then I suggest you start off with Betelgeuse as your first star (you can cycle through possible stars - press the Menu button (key #3) to change from stars in the West to stars in the East and the up (key #6) and down (key #9) buttons to select a star). Betelgeuse is the top left star in Orion, so easy to identify in the night sky and is visibly red in the eyepiece so you'll know you have the right star.

I've found that this gets easier and easier but I am not sure if that's because I'm getting better or if it's because the mount is learning.

Incidentally, if you are struggling, use the factory reset on your mount to completely start again and repeat the procedure.

In my opinion, getting a reasonably good intial alignment using the polar scope is an important step as it means your first alignment star is going to be in the Finder Scope - getting Polaris in the middle of the Polar Scope isn't good enough, it needs to be near it's actual position with respect to the North Celestial Pole.

Like I say, I can be set up from carrying the tripod outside to finishing polar alignment in less than half an hour and I am then set for an evening's observing or imaging and the CG5-GT's GOTO hits objects across the night sky pretty accurately. I'd really recommend sticking with it as once you get used to it, it makes life much easier...

Hope that this helps!

(and the Gas have won 6-1 while I've been typing this!)

[Matt2011]

Thanks for your reply and reading through it and it seems quite a lot you have to do to set up correctly and unfortunately do not have a polarscope but is it worth the £30 in buying one and polaris being not so bright is quite hard to find anyway but you can see it with the naked eye but to be honest I have not had a lot of time to set this mount up due to bad weather and cloudy skies and work as well but I am seriously thinking of selling it as its too time consuming and complicated and to much you need to do and remember and the long set up is not what I thought it would be which puts me off. I am not the most patient person anyway but I am considering getting something like a Skywatcher 200p Flexi Tube Dobsonian which I can just point NORTH and begin observing but obvioiusly will need collimating at times and regarding the CG-5 GT mount I tried last night and there were some clear skies but cloud but as soon as the mount was assembled it clouded over before I began anything else but I find it all far to time consuming really when you wanna just go and observe as soon as you walk outside.

[x6gas]

Well, as I say above, I think a Polar Scope is pretty much a necessity - before you buy one though it's worth checking that you don't have one already - have you checked?

Like I say, with practice I can get the whole set up done in 30 minutes. If that's too long for you then a german equitorial mount isn't for you and you would indeed be better off with a Dobsonian IMHO - 'faid I can't help you with patience!

You will need to collimate a Dobsonian but that's a different topic - google astro baby collimation and you'll find a good guide. Collimation, like many things in astronomy, requires patience too. May be a refractor (which doesn't need collimating) on an alt/az mount - probably the easiest grab and go set up...

[Matt2011]

Thanks and appreicate it and my CG-5 GT from what I can see has no Polarscope but did yours come with one. I can see through where the polarscope is so need to get Polaris in this but its looking a little clear outside but still cloud so may have another go but I may order the polarscope. I have been looking at my Nexstar and there are a lot of features in the MENU and things like Callibration set ups and Scope set Ups and also what Backlash and do all these settings and stuff mean anything as its rather a lot I think. Probably why ppl like myself get stuck but gonna try my new SkySync GPS if its clear later but gonna wait until I think its gonna be clear as I don't wanna waste my time setting the mount up and then it clouds over again. I know I have to go to UTILITIES and select GPS on so then I would assume it will trck any GPS satellite and then will enter all my details like Time and Long/Lat etc in the Nexstar handset but gonna have another go anyway but if not then will have to sell this mount and get something which is more easier. Many Thanks:cool:

[x6gas]

The callibration you only have to run once (unless you do a factory reset). The manual should explain what the backlash and other functions do (downloadable from celestron.com if you don't have one) but that's really for tuning your mount and isn't essential for accurate GoTo function...

My CG5 did indeed come with a polar scope but if you look up through the right ascension axis (after removing the covers at either end), you'll either have an empty hole or a polar scope.

No idea about the GPS module... sorry!

[Matt2011]

Just been out again trying to set up this mount and I am fuming with it to be honest, I hate equatorial mounts as far as I am concerned to much time and messing about with this and that and it does my head in to be honest. I tried putting the mount on to the tripod with gr8 difficulty just now and not even sure if that is right as the silver peg on the tripod base on the CG-5 GT mount facing north and the mount is facing a different direction but there is no other way to make the mount face towards where the silver peg is as it will not sit on to the mount anywhere else I place it but obviously the mount has to sit on the silver peg but does the silver peg have to be facing NORTH. These mounts are to bothersome for me to be honest and an ALT AZ mount is far better which I will probably go back to to save all the wasted time. Thanks

[BEYOND EARTH]

x6gas thank you so much! Your post helped me out!

[TonyM]

You've helped me too so thank you for that.

I've had a couple of frustrating sessions but that's just made me more keen to get it right.

I've now got a polar finder and I've aligned it to the mount during daylight.

Just waiting for suitable conidtions to take it out and try it.

[rawhead]

It's much less hassle on a pier

Make sue the index marks are lined up, fire it up and use last alignment.

I think I have re-aligned once maybe twice in six months.

(I did have problems when I used hibernation)

[Matt2011]

In the process of doing a swap deal for my CG-5 GT mount for a Celestron 6-8 SE mount with the NEXSTAR which will make things a lot easier. Just cannot get on with Equatorial Mounts but I did make sure the dials were facing each other on the mount. There is always a problem with these mounts with whatever you do but simplicity is always the goal and find that 30mins or more to set up is time wasting unless your in to serious astrophotography but I believe Alt Az mounts are better and quicker and easier to set up.

[spaceboy]

A quick search of the forum will show many a member have experience similar alignment issues with AZ mounts. GT mounts are just fiddly but after time you will get into a routine that works best for you. Any time lost setting up is soon made up for not having the hassle of finding objects.

[Matt2011]

Think the Celestron SE 6/8 Mount is more suitable and there are more pros than cons but feel its more suitable as I am not keen as of yet to get in to Astrophotography and may not in the future but feel that Equatorial Mounts are more suited for ppl that are wanting to start out in Astrophotography but I am againts long set ups and what I found the other night that it took a long time and would say 40mins and still the CG-5 GT mount was not properly alligned but then I found as soon as i got to setting up the Nexstar the rain clouds hovered over.