Considering CGEM Mount

[JimS]

Hey all,

I am fortunate enough to be moving jobs towards the end of the month with a tidy pay rise and hopefully a chunky pay off from old employers due to unused annual leave.

With this in mind I am considering splashing out on the Celestron CGEM mount, to upgrade my Nexstar 8SE to an equatorial mount, as I really want to get into DSO Astrophotography.

Already checked with FLO with regards the mount adapter to fix my OTA to the CGEM but wanted to ask peoples opinion of the CGEM mount generally. Good option?

[Uranium235]

I had the same quandry in which heavy mount to choose CGEM or NEQ6, after having weighed up the pros + cons of each mount I plumped for the NEQ6. The thing that swung it was the new beta firmware which contains the polar alignment routine which until recently was only the preserve of Celestron mounts.

Oh, its quite a bit cheaper than the CGEM, plus you can use EQMOD with the NEQ6 and it has a higher load capacity. I could go on, but you get the picture

The sound of an NEQ6 is ..... reassuringly expensive That swishing sound it makes when guiding, worth every penny. Cant say the CGEM will be as pleasant to listen to as it uses servo motors.

[Dunkster]

I went through this conundrum a while back, and being far from an expert and never having had a GEM before, I went with the consensus that seemed to be (N)EQ6. It's a beast. Very solidly made, only wish they did a black version One of the stats I dug up while researching was that the NEQ6 is a couple of kgs lighter but with a higher carrying capacity. The only negative point I could come up with was regards to accessories - any Celestron-specific accessories, such as the GPS, SkyQ, etc won't work with the SW - but this doesn't affect me.

Given the FLO (one-only) clearance CGEM, the price difference isn't so much, but it normally is £300 or so more. Regarding the adapter, the SW takes either Vixen or Losmandy-style dovetail without additional cost or modification.

Another option would be the iOptron IEQ45 which is also supposed to be very good but it's much more expensive (relatively!) and I wasn't so sure how things would work out with my C11 if I end up putting a small frac on top

[Martin-Devon]

As a CGEM user, I can say that I'm very happy with mine. It got me into astro-imaging as a complete novice, was very user-friendly, and has worked really well. Yes there are always the odd glitches when the guiding misbehaves etc but everybody finds this whether they have an NEQ6 or a CGEM. The CGEM has some nice touches, the all-star polar alignment works very well and I've found calibration & tracking with mine to be excellent. I think you'll find that both NEQ6's and CGEMs can be work very well, and can also give issues - but I have to say that much is down to the actual user, on how they set-up and handle their mounts.

[Coco]

Hi

Make sure your purchase is future proof; you might want to get into imaging big time one day.

The EQMOD with the NEQ6 is the way forward, its simple enough to set up, you can use the popular Stellarium for a star map, it works a real treat.

EQMOD lets you choose a star right smack bang next to your target, you simply sink on that star, it makes centering your target for imaging much easier, some targets are so faint even 2 minutes or more will not reveal your target. Imagine setting up and getting the guiding working only to discover the target is off centre or somewhere you don’t want it? It’s a pain!

Get the NEQ6 and get into EQMOD its free! ... Ask the retailer about EQMOD and how it works..

[r3i]

Congratulations on the new job, and welcome to the "should I buy a CGEM, NEQ6 or IEQ45" club.

I'm sure whichever one you buy, you'll be happy with, as long you don't get a lemon.

There was a relatively recent thread on the choice between the CGEM & NEQ6 which may be of interest: http://stargazerslou...86-neq6-v-cgem/

[JimS]

Cheers for the advice guys.

Read a lot of postives for both mounts EQ6 and the CGEM.

Was leaning towards the CGEM generally, and got to admit I also like it as it will look fantastic with my 8SE OTA coupled with it. The clincher was FLO offering a discount last night on the CGEM so I have snapped that up!

Very much looking forward to my heavy boxes arriving. Apologies for adding an extra couple of weeks of cloud on top of the appalling forecast we already have.....!

[JimS]

Woohoo!

Picked up the CGEM this morning from the local FedEx depot!

All unpacked and assembled, and I have changed out the supplied saddle with the ADM dual saddle, so that my 8" SCt from the 8SE set up could be mounted.

Also had a play around with NexRemote and Stellarium and got the both working thanks to the USB - RS232 adapter that arrived today - good timing!

It is a monster of a mount! Was hoping to be able to store it in a 570 x 370 x 415 box storage case I have but it looks like it is the tiniest bit too big....! Might get lucky though. Only eyeballed it so far.

Hope the skies clear soon and I can try it for real!