Losmandy G11.... opinions please.....any particular issues?

[RobH]

Hi, I'm considering a second largish mount and it's a choice between a Celestron CGE ( old type) and a Losmandy G11. It'll be a secondhand purchase and they both come in at a similar amount of money. The CGE I know well, having owned one previously, but the G11 isn't a mount I have experience with, but have heard that they can be a bit temperamental at times.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance :-)

[ChrisLX200]

Hi, I'm considering a second largish mount and it's a choice between a Celestron CGE ( old type) and a Losmandy G11. It'll be a secondhand purchase and they both come in at a similar amount of money. The CGE I know well, having owned one previously, but the G11 isn't a mount I have experience with, but have heard that they can be a bit temperamental at times.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance :-)

A G11 (and you really want the Gemini controler to go with it) can be variable in performance from one example to another and each needs a bit of fettling to give its best. However, once tuned it will perform very well indeed. If you are not mechanically-minded or unwilling to play with alignment of worms and suchlike then perhaps best avoided. They can be a real bargain though if purchased s/h. I was considering changing mine recently for something newer but then decided to service the mount myself, that involved nothing more than simple lubrication and adjustments, but the difference was astounding. I would have to pay a heck of a lot more to get a mount that performs significantly better. Last night it tracked within 0.5arcsec all night (well, the 3-1/2hrs of darkness anyway...). I took a screen grab of PHD2 whilst it was guiding:

Oh, and I don't use PEC at all...

ChrisH

[RobH]

Thanks Chris. Although I'm capable of tinkering, it's not something that interests me so I'll bear that in mind. Very good guide graph.....I never use PEC when guiding either, I find it can confuse things a little!

[pete_l]

Not sure how old you're planning to go for a G11, but a few years ago I seemed to see a fair few posts on the Losmandy mailing list about these mounts and burned out (mount overloaded? - who can say) motors. I believe that newer mounts have a better (higher torque) motor that doesn't have these problems.

So I'd certainly enquire about this regarding the mount you are thinking of buying.

[RobH]

I think I'll stick to my original plan and see if I can get hold of a CGE. I only got rid of my last one because I was running it at maximum load so I needed something beefier, and even then it worked well as long as I was careful with the balance.

[alan potts]

I wanted a G11 about 3-4 years ago but was given a wait of 1 year and told on the QT that could be a lie. I think you are better sticking to what you know Rob and it may also be easier to come by as I would have though Celestron will have out sold Losmandy on this.

Alan

[Astroscot2]

Rob, I owned a non goto GM8 and later upgraded to a G11. Both mounts

performed without any issues during my ownership. I only sold my G11

to upgrade to an EQ8 as i wanted to image with longer fl and a heavier set up

My G11 could guide well with my 10" newt however it was on the limit in my eyes.

I found the G11 easily portable for star parties and build quality was

excellent.

Wanting another portable set up i recenty bought a CGEM from Opticstar who are

doing a good deal on them, however if i had the option of buying my G11

back i would not hesitate

Mark

[Ben Ritchie]

I owned one for a couple of years, and would agree with this

variable in performance from one example to another and each needs a bit of fettling to give its best. However, once tuned it will perform very well indeed. If you are not mechanically-minded or unwilling to play with alignment of worms and suchlike then perhaps best avoided.

Mine needed a fair bit of tweaking to deal with the infamous 76-second error, out of the box it was a bit of a disappointment for imaging but ultimately was very good once I got the worm gear sorted out (and then I sold it to get an AP 1200GTO ). Visually it was fine though, and Gemini is very good, particularly once you've done a few iterations to work through polar alignment and enough reference stars for it to build a decent pointing model. Once you've done that then go-to was bang on for me right across the sky. The Gemini handset feels very old-fashioned though.

Personally i'd recommend one at the right price (in fact, i'd buy one again myself at the right price!). But you do need to tinker to get the best if you are an imager.

edit: one more thing, accessories are very expensive and usually out of stock (or, at least they were when I owned one) so worth looking for one packaged with the bits you need - typically an extra counterweight or two, the clutch knobs (a big improvement over the basic set), and pier adapter if you're mounting it in an observatory.

[RobH]

Thanks for the info folks. Ben....I sold my CGE to get an AP1200 too!

[ChrisLX200]

....

edit: one more thing, accessories are very expensive and usually out of stock (or, at least they were when I owned one) so worth looking for one packaged with the bits you need - typically an extra counterweight or two, the clutch knobs (a big improvement over the basic set), and pier adapter if you're mounting it in an observatory.

That's true, accessories were always expensive for Losmandy mounts - the reason I made my own weights (+bar), clutch knobs and pier adapter

ChrisH

[Nakedgun]

Beautiful work, there, Chris.

[alan potts]

Very nice Chris!