Which mount

[recceranger]

Hi guys,

Any opinions on what mount is best all round the SW NEQ6 Sky Scan Pro or Celestron CGEM?

Don't want to depart with hard earned cash until well informed!

Cheers

[JamesM]

The NEQ6 SynScan Pro is certainly very popular in part due to its price (£960) compared with the Celestron CGEM Goto (£1,195). The CGEM is the next step up from the NEQ6. Now I chose the NEQ6 in part because there are many useful maintenance guides, specific Yahoo user support sites, modification ideas, along with its familiarity with members here which in total is very useful should I ever have a problem with the mount. The NEQ6 has a load capacity of 25KG (55.1 lbs) which is more than the Celestron which has a capacity of 40 lbs. This might be a factor depending on what you are going to be putting on the mount, remembering that for imaging, you should be aimimg at loading no more than half of this maximum amount. I also wanted to take advantage of 'EQMOD' (look here) which is free software that enables the NEQ6 to be connected to Stellarium planetarium and various other 'driver' programs that allow remote control use via a game pad, help you with creating imaging mosaic's of the moon etc. I do not know if EQMOD can also be used with the Celestron mount, that could be something that you check with a good retailer like FLO. I do know that the Celestron mount can store PEC (periodic Error Correction(s)) within the mount which will help improve the tracking accuracy each to you switch it on. Hopefully someone else might later add some other differences for your consideration. Hope the above gets you started.

James