New Celestron Advanced VX Mount

[FLO]

I don't rely on bubble level on my CG5 anyway. I bought a small spirit level from an engineers suppliers and get the tripod level with that, then I attach the mount. Perfectly level everytime.

Me too

I have never trusted mini bubble levels, logic suggests they need to be wider to be accurate.

[WhiteShiva]

I don't rely on bubble level on my CG5 anyway. I bought a small spirit level from an engineers suppliers and get the tripod level with that, then I attach the mount. Perfectly level everytime.

That sounds like a good idea, will have a look at some this weekend.

[WhiteShiva]

Just received this from Celestron:

"Sorry for the confusion. This is a misprint in the manual. The VX does not come with a bubble level."

Sorry about that.

It doesn't matter too much as it's cheap enough to get one. I do find it weird though as I would have thought for astrophotography the mount needs to be precisely aligned and that would include making sure the mount is levelled. I imagine the mount loosing precision when rotating or slewing slightly too far or too short of the object.

[Chris Rowland]

This is a common misunderstanding. What you need for imaging is a good polar alignment so the Ra Axis is parallel to the Earth's rotation axis. The position of the mount base doesn't matter at all. It isn't moving so how can it affect things?

The process of getting the mount polar aligned can be helped by having the mount base level but this does not have to be precise, within a few degrees is close enough and that can be achieved by eye.

Chris

[steppenwolf]

An easy way to satisfy yourself that a level mount is not important is to imagine an infinitely long rod passing through the RA axis and pointing in the exact direction of the North Celestial Pole. You can see that the WHOLE mount *could* be rotated, say, 90 degrees and a wall built to support it and the mount would still be polar aligned!

[Nathan_Pembs]

A few videos of this mount now appearing on Youtube, if people are wondering how noisy it is when slewing etc

[WhiteShiva]

This is a common misunderstanding. What you need for imaging is a good polar alignment so the Ra Axis is parallel to the Earth's rotation axis. The position of the mount base doesn't matter at all. It isn't moving so how can it affect things?

The process of getting the mount polar aligned can be helped by having the mount base level but this does not have to be precise, within a few degrees is close enough and that can be achieved by eye.

Chris

That makes a lot of sense. Will hold off on carrying a leveller around and see when the skies clear.

[cplee42]

I've been out for the last 4 nights with my new VX. Crazy weather... Must be in Florida or something but never realised... Anyway I have been trialing the mount and I'm impressed. I have been a Nexstar user on the Fork mount with the 8SE but found it at its mass limit for my eyepieces etc and so GOTO was a bit hit and miss and objects near zenith usually a guesstimate. The new mount solves these problems.

So things I have found...

A) the set up is easy (2 star alignment plus 4 calibration stars) but I never found anywhere in the manual that says you have to lock the two clutches before you try to slew (perhaps obvious but not to me... Led to a bit of confusion when the slewing seemed to stop)

the counterweight is not really sufficient for the 8SE plus finderscope plus binoviewer. Fortunately I had a spare (small) weight from an old rowing machine which I have added.

C) i get very good goto's with 3 calibration stars ( always inside a 25 mm eyepiece)

D) polar alignment is easy using the All Star Polar Alignment...Polaris is not visible from my house. Tracking is then spot on. Saturn stayed close to the cross hair of a 12 mm recticle eyepiece for over 20 mins. I'm a sketcher and this will keep clusters nicely solid for quite a while.

E) unlike the nexstar the scope and tripod is very stable... No wobbles when the focus knob is turned.

F) I find the movement of the eyepiece and the contortions needed to observe a bit of a pain. The eyepiece view is tricky to match up with my iphone sky safari FoV (i user the skywire version with the mount) vs the fork nexstar.

G) Eyepieces move about at odd angles as the scope slews. Make sure the eyepiece is locked into the diagonal otherwise they will occassionally fall out.

So far then, so good....

[Michael1971]

Does someone know what the tracking resolution is on these mounts?

Is that more like the eq5 pro 0.288 or heq5/neq6 0.144?

[allcart]

How does the weight of the VX compare with the CG5-GT. I can lift my mount fully assembled and including the weights (no OTA) out into the garden fairly easily. Will I be able to do the same with the VX.

[astroVX]

How does the weight of the VX compare with the CG5-GT. I can lift my mount fully assembled and including the weights (no OTA) out into the garden fairly easily. Will I be able to do the same with the VX.

I find I am just about able to lift and carry my VX mount with the weight and tripod attached it is pretty heavy with the weight on when lifting you won't be walking fast with it I managed 15 meters before have to put it down and rest!

I am having trouble with the time and date on the handset with mine. I setup the location and longitude & latitude I put the time & date in the handset then I do a one or two star align and after the align I go into the handset menu I goto the View Time & Site option in the handset menu and my just setup Time & Date have vanished and been reverted back to a time of 01:00:00 and the date reverted from 05/26/13 to 03/01/00.

So I go into Scope Setup and Set Time & Location option and the Time & Date I set before doing either the ONE or TWO Star Align has reverted also back to a Time of 01:00:00 and a Date of 03/01/00.

I have the VX handsets RTC "Real Time Clock" set to ON I have the VX set to EQ North and i have tried Factory Reset but it won't keep the time and date I enter before doing the alignment routine.i hope my mount or handset is not a DUFF I only have had this VX for 12 days 11 were solid cloud so only got to try it ut last night May 26th and everything was off the Goto were very far off.Here is a strange thing also I have a CG5GT Polarscope it mine bought seperate and when I have Polaris in the little circle in the polar scope I have to have my latitude adjuster on the mount set to 58 Degrees Alitude but my location in the UK according to Google Maps is at 53 Degrees Latitude.IF I have the mount set at 53 Degrees Latitude Polaris is not visible in the PolarScope and after adjusting the Azimuth & Altitude bolts to get Polaris into the little circle in the Polarscope my Latitude on the VX mounts latitude scale has to be set at 58 Degrees.

Any ideas from you experienced Celestron GEM users?

[Chris Rowland]

It's worth checking the RTC battery. It's on the board under the connector panel. The battery is a CR2032.

Chris

[allcart]

Thanks for the info AstroVX. I found out the VX is only about 6LBs heavier than my CG5-GT so it will be manageable. 15yds is all I have to move it too. It also seems that it will carry a lot more weight than the CG5 so I may need one for my new scope when I have finished building it.

Disconcerting news about your handset probs. I never had any probs with the CG5 nexstar handset. Keep us informed if you find anything out or rectify the problem.

I don't know how the head sits on the tripod, but have you checked of there is a locating peg or anything that is not letting the head sit squarely on the mount. Can't think of any other reason for being 5 degrees out on the altitude, unless the scale is misaligned somehow.

[astroVX]

It's worth checking the RTC battery. It's on the board under the connector panel. The battery is a CR2032.

Chris

Thanks but it's a new VX mount so I can't see the battery being dead, I read on a CGEM forum post that if the RTC battery is dead the RTC option for on/off RTC in the menu can't be changed.

Guess it's similar on the VX, mine is showing so the battery must have juice left.

I can't work out why my google maps latitude is 53 degrees but when polaris is centered in the polarscope little circle of the CG5GT polarscope I have to have the atitude adjuster on the VX set to 58 degrees 5 degrees difference? That's confusing and I defo had the correct star centered ie polaris.

Any ideas or should I send this mount back for replaement?

[allcart]

Have you contacted the supplier?

[FLO]

As far as I can tell we don't currently have any faulty AVX mount discussions at our helpdesk but if the AVX mounts mentioned here are purchased from FLO please email us

So far we have experienced only one faulty AVX mount (which is impressive). SteveB currently has it setup here at the unit, the handset dies about two seconds after the mount is powered up.

HTH,

Steve

[Erquy]

Hi

i got my vx with C8 about 2 weeks and got opportunity to go out 3 times with it. Still portable and very easy to set up (this is my 1st eq mount). I also did some imaging with a canon at prime f10 or f6.3 (still trial to find right set up) and for the ones wondering about possible exposure time, below are what i can say so far (after the all star polar alignement), unguided

- nearly 100% at 30 sec usable/no trails

- 45 sec, about 90%

- 60 sec about 70%

- 90 sec about 50-60% less at f10

Based on this i think i will work with 45 sec, although i will still try to work out (maybe looking abit on finding right balance, further working polar alignment, i also see a fubction called calibrating mount, not tried, don t know if this can affect it)

I am still learning. I don t have a clue if this is what to expect or not, as mentioned, this my first goto eq (and very happy, with my little altaz, i could not got more than 30 sec with 30% usable (typically i was around 15 sec with 70% or so usable). I can start real dso now!!

Anybody can report what they manage in exposure time, unguidded with the vx/c8

Regards

[RincewindAAA]

Hi All

How does this compare with the HEQ5 Pro?

If FLO or anyone else with knowledge of both mounts are reading, do you have any advice? Which would you go for as a first AP mount (no previous experience)?

Regards

[Rudeviewer]

Thinking about buying a VX mount and ditching the 6SE mount so any new news on exposure times would be awesome on this mount. 

[Rudeviewer]

I just ordered the celestron avx mount with 6" newt attached.  Even though I has a gear drive for the Declination, it seems it should suit the beginner APer.  I will post a beginners review since I cannot find a whole lot of reviews on this setup.  Should get it in a week or so as I didn't want to pay an arm for shipping.  I am planning on attaching my 6se OTA to this mount as well.

Hoping for 4 to 5 min exposure as opposed to 15 sec. with this setup unguided since I don't want to spend the extra 400 bucks to get an autoguider setup.

Have a few targets that I have been dying to image since I was about 10 and saw my uncle doing this with his homemade slr setup that produces amazing images.  He passed a few years ago and this is my way of keeping his love of the cosmos a family affair.  Orion Nebula, Andromeda galaxy, Crab Nebula for a few.  I can remember when he showed me the green doughnut in the sky I was blown away. 

[Chris Rowland]

4 to 5 minute exposures unguided will be difficult for any mount other than a really high end one.  Your best chance of achieving it will be with a really good polar alignment and the mount PEC trained.

An autoguider setup should be possible for not too much, something like a modified finder and a web cam may do the trick.

Chris

[MitchellHamilton]

VERY interested in your AVX w/6" Newt experiences, hoping to buy the same combo in the next few months.

[Mr c]

I'm looking into buying this too http://www.firstlightoptics.com/advanced-vx-goto/celestron-c6-n-newtonian-vx-goto.html but not 100% sure yet.

[Rudeviewer]

I ended up getting screwed by the seller who was new to amazon, and it never got shipping out to me.  Instead I went with focus camera and they had the mount only send to me in a quick and orderly fashion.  Love the mount had good success with only using it this first time.  Able to get a good alignment out of it and 1 minute subs no problem with minimal trailing for me.  I have an autoguider coming I will let you all know how that improves it. 

I definably love the stability of this mount.  It was soo easy to adjust even though I have never used an EQ mount.  I would recommend this mount to anyone for a cheaper start to AP and the simplicity of the GOTO on this mount. 

[MarkbPlym]

I purchased the Advanced VX and C8 package from FLO and I also purchased the StarSense gadget from Amazon. I am impressed with the whole package. I can now set up and auto align within 15 minutes (and getting quicker at it). The tripod is very sturdy and very much better constructed than my old Nexstar 5se. The mount and OTA are also well constructed and fit together nicely too.

So far, I can get up to 30 sec exposures with nice round stars, I have yet to try out polar align as I am waiting for this feature to be implemented (properly) in StarSense.

Overall the mount is very well made and easy to use. All stars, planets and DSO's appear bang on centre of my 25mm eyepiece since the last StarSense update.  

You should also consider buying a power tank, focus mask and dew shield with the AVX and C8 package. Highly recommended.