New Scope & Mount

[Stu1smartcookie]

Hi , i have just acquired a celestron omni xlt127 together with a cg4 mount . I have already purchased a polar scope which will arrive tomorrow , but i also wish to do some basic tracking with the mount . I have received mixed views on whether this is possible as the original motors made by celestron are in very short supply or not even made any more !  I was under the impression though that the CG4 is equivalent to the skywatcher EQ3-2 . If that is the case will  the motor drive kit for that  mount work with the CG4? 

Surely these motors must work as they are only doing the job of mechanically operating the slow motion controls . The only problem i can see from looking at the CG4 mount is that there is no hole to screw the fixing bracket to . 

Any  thoughts welcome 

Kind regards

Stuart 

[DaveL59]

depending how long they actually take to ship
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32835072290.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.603e79a7PCFYyY&algo_pvid=0a1101b7-4988-4520-abcd-9681a6e239db&algo_expid=0a1101b7-4988-4520-abcd-9681a6e239db-3&btsid=0b0a555616037280870373498e45c2&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Generally the stuff I've ordered via Ali take around 8-14 days so might be viable for you.

[Stu1smartcookie]

Thanks Dave ... thats a real help . With the way things are i reckon a couple of weeks is a bargain . Have to say , comparing those with the skywatcher , they seem very similar .

[DaveL59]

could be the same tho brackets may differ, I can't really say tho one reviewer there says they are so...?

[DaveL59]

there's this one too, a bit cheaper - well till you add shipping lol
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000803294288.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.40a41d79OJ3r0y&algo_pvid=77cf0e31-3ffd-437c-95c0-a53d8b22a199&algo_expid=77cf0e31-3ffd-437c-95c0-a53d8b22a199-1&btsid=0b0a555516037301365127014e6dbf&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

[Alan64]

9 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hi , i have just acquired a celestron omni xlt127 together with a cg4 mount . I have already purchased a polar scope which will arrive tomorrow , but i also wish to do some basic tracking with the mount . I have received mixed views on whether this is possible as the original motors made by celestron are in very short supply or not even made any more !  I was under the impression though that the CG4 is equivalent to the skywatcher EQ3-2 . If that is the case will  the motor drive kit for that  mount work with the CG4? 

Surely these motors must work as they are only doing the job of mechanically operating the slow motion controls . The only problem i can see from looking at the CG4 mount is that there is no hole to screw the fixing bracket to . 

Any  thoughts welcome 

Kind regards

Stuart 

If for visual-use only, I would suggest motorising the RA-axis only, and to the point whereby I had removed the DEC cable from the hand-controller from my own Celestron dual-drive kit, and for my own CG-4...

But pay no attention to this madman, as I've yet to use the mount and motors, and likely never will, as I'm now wanting an EQ5-class mount instead.

I have read in the past that amateurs usually prefer to manually adjust the DEC-axis, for what that's worth.  I also know of at least one instance whereby a user attached this motor-drive to their CG-4, and successfully...

https://www.365astronomy.com/Celestron-RA-Motor-Drive-EQ-AstroMasters-and-PowerSeekers.html

The nice thing about that drive is that the speed is adjustable.  I have one myself, but I haven't made use of it yet; soon, I hope, and with my EQ-1.

For a CG-4, I would suspect perhaps a bit of DIY in attaching it to the mount.

If you require dual-drives, for imaging, then please disregard my reply.

[Cosmic Geoff]

8 hours ago, Alan64 said:

If for visual-use only, I would suggest motorising the RA-axis only, and to the point whereby I had removed the DEC cable from the hand-controller from my own Celestron dual-drive kit, and for my own CG-4...

I had RA drive only on my EQ-5 before I upgraded it to a Synscan GoTo.  I found it irritating to have the RA and Dec fine controls in different places, and when mounting a long refractor, the Dec slow motion was out of reach unless I used a long rigid extension made from  6mm aluminum tube. I think two powered controls on the same box would have been better.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Cosmic Geoff

[Stu1smartcookie]

Thank you for the suggestions guys ... i must admit , i am leaning towards getting an alt az goto set up rather than this mount . Don't get me wrong , i used it for the first time last night and it was absolutely brilliant but with the motor drives costing what they do and the expense of a polar scope i may be tempted to sell the mount . I will certainly be keeping the scope that i bought with it though , which produced some very fine results last night ( a very Dewy night) . I Just think that for my light polluted garden i need a quick fire pick up and place anywhere mount that can take small scopes (up to 5kgs ) . 

 

[Alan64]

21 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

I had RA drive only on my EQ-5 before I upgraded it to a Synscan GoTo.  I found it irritating to have the RA and Dec fine controls in different places, and when mounting a long refractor, the Dec slow motion was out of reach unless I used a long rigid extension made from  6mm aluminum tube. I think two powered controls on the same box would have been better.

The OP's telescope is a 127mm Maksutov; a short tubed telescope.  Yes, I suppose with a long-focus achromat that that would be problematic.  Hence, let this be a lesson to those with long-focus refractors; and long-focus Newtonians perhaps?

[Alan64]

9 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Thank you for the suggestions guys ... i must admit , i am leaning towards getting an alt az goto set up rather than this mount . Don't get me wrong , i used it for the first time last night and it was absolutely brilliant but with the motor drives costing what they do and the expense of a polar scope i may be tempted to sell the mount . I will certainly be keeping the scope that i bought with it though , which produced some very fine results last night ( a very Dewy night) . I Just think that for my light polluted garden i need a quick fire pick up and place anywhere mount that can take small scopes (up to 5kgs ) . 

 

I don't like my CG-4.  It's in the "Twilight Zone" among equatorials as far as I'm concerned.  If you ever do want an equatorial, the EQ5-class mounts are the sweet-spot among equatorials, just the weight of a small sack of sugar over an EQ3-class; and just as a 127mm Maksutov is among the varying apertures of its design.  Yet an EQ-5 is much more versatile.  If you're going to huff 'n' puff and lug out either one, make it an EQ-5.

If you don't have a proper dew-shield for your Maksutov, do get one straight away.  I didn't take my own outdoors at all until I got one for it...

Enjoy.

[DaveL59]

14 minutes ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Thank you for the suggestions guys ... i must admit , i am leaning towards getting an alt az goto set up rather than this mount . Don't get me wrong , i used it for the first time last night and it was absolutely brilliant but with the motor drives costing what they do and the expense of a polar scope i may be tempted to sell the mount . I will certainly be keeping the scope that i bought with it though , which produced some very fine results last night ( a very Dewy night) . I Just think that for my light polluted garden i need a quick fire pick up and place anywhere mount that can take small scopes (up to 5kgs ) . 

 

are you thinking to try your hand at photography or just visual?

For me the upside of the EQ is that you only need to tweak the RA to stay on track when viewing and an RA motor means you don't even need to do that. For AZ you're adjusting both axes which I find a real drag, tho goto would take care of that. For the EQ you only need to be roughly polar aligned for visual, I just plonk the tripod down with the RA aimed approx north and don't use the polar scope at all either on the manual EQ5 or the synscan equipped one. An app like polar aligner pro makes getting close enough simple. If you plan to try astro-photography however then yes getting alignment is much more important.

[Stu1smartcookie]

Hi Alan ,... had the Eq5 ... i only got the cg4 because it came with the scope and i haven't got another mount at the moment . I luckily have a dew shield  

Dave ... i am mainly visual but will take the occasional snap of a passing planet or the moon . I really don't have the patience for image processing as i have tried that previously . The image below is my limited success lol

Edited October 27, 2020 by Stu1smartcookie

[Alan64]

2 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hi Alan ,... had the Eq5 ... i only got the cg4 because it came with the scope and i haven't got another mount at the moment . I luckily have a dew shield  

Ah, then you know just how beastly an equatorial can be.  With the counterweights required, per this telescope and that, it is rightly the equivalent of hauling out, then in, a mount, and two telescopes.

[Stu1smartcookie]

18 minutes ago, Alan64 said:

Ah, then you know just how beastly an equatorial can be.  With the counterweights required, per this telescope and that, it is rightly the equivalent of hauling out, then in, a mount, and two telescopes.

Absolutely , Alan ... especially in the UK's unpredictable weather .. which seems to change by the hour .