AVX Mount V CgemII,CGX for 9.25 Celestron SCT

[newtyng5]

Hi there, may be a silly question that has been answered many times before.

I have been in astronomy for over 35 years. I have a celestron 9.25 SCT on an AVX mount (my first goto which I bought in march this year) , i think the mount is great in that it is portable, and pretty sturdy, but it loses alignment after a couple of hours (and its a pain sometimes to get it aligned also for some reason, the keypad spews garbage at times, so I reset).

Anyone else found this problem, and is it worth upgrading to a cgemii, or something like a CGX, or maybe an EQ6 if its suitable ?

I am a visual observer, so I would assume an AVX would suffice, but I tempted to save up for a cgem ii, or cgx. As at times it seems the mount is labouring with a 41mm TV panoptic. (I use a tracer power supply, so power is fine).

I make sure everything is well balanced. Ohh and I bought a skysync GPS for it, that helps , even though it costs a daft amount for what it does.

Advice and experience appreciated.

Cheers, and clear skies! 

[ramdom]

I've had a C925 XLT (and now EdgeHD) on an AVX for a couple of years for visual and EAA and I've always found it reliable and robust for any given session.  So my guess is that your AVX might not be working as well as it could. Some issues could be due to firmware. Also, I use StarSense for autoalignment and it has worked well for me: I'm up and running within 5 minutes and I don't have to do anything in terms of alignments, etc.  So if StarSense could work for you, that may be a better solution even if you do lose alignment---within 3-5 minutes, you'll be fully aligned again.  Right now I have to set the clock manually every time I use the AVX since it drifts a bit and is not exact so that's an inconvenience I put up with (whereas if I had SkySync, the would be automatic for me too) but I'd rather not do the alignments manually if I can help it.  If you do get a StarSense, it will continue to work on any Celestron mount I believe.  

A CGX or a better mount would be better of course, though you may lose the portability of the AVX, but in all cases there's always the possibility of something going wrong or the mount not working as well as it should normally. I own a Paramount MyT also and it has performed flawlessly for me but on the message boards for the mount, there are many new owners posting complaints constantly. And this is supposed to be a premium mount.

This is all just MHO: my preference usually in situations like is to try and figure out why something isn't working to spec and fix it and if I exhaust my options doing that then I'd consider upgrade.

--Ram

 

 

[PeterCPC]

I use a C9.25 on my AVX for planetary and some DSO imaging and it's fine. You just have to make sure the PA is good. I use a Polemaster but used to do ASPA and that worked ok as well. I also considered a CGX but ruled it out on weight.

Get the AVX working well and it should be fine. The fact that it loses accuracy over time might indicate a power loss issue - my AVX only works well with a mains adapter.

Peter

[Luter68]

I have an AVX, but carrying a smaller scope - mak127 plus a ZWO guide scope, that I use for imaging (with a 200mm camera lens mounted at the tip of the counterweight bar. So, my mount could have a easier job than yours.

However, it took me nearly one year to manage to reach satisfactory 90s unguided exposures through a night. 

This is my experience and I hope it may be of help.

1) verify that the knobs locking the axes never touch the motor cases. I actually had this problem with the declination one. I was losing alignment in the middle of the night and did not understood why until I read about this somewhere and checked it. Then I dismounted the know and tightened it at a different angle so to be sure that never touch the case when tightened.

2) do a PA as good as you can. I added a polar scope and learned how to use it. It definitively helped to get a good start.

3) use always at least 4 calibration stars and an eyepiece with a crosshair.

4) make sure coordinates are correct and pay attention to enter the time as accurately as possible, possibly within 1 or 2s.

5) pay attention at balancing the mount.

hope it help.

good luck and clear skies.