Repost From A Hijacked Thread CG-5 Mounts Opinions Please

[dazza1639]

As I have previously posted I'm going to be in the market for a new scope in the next few months, I was going to get a fork mounted SCT but after some discussion I was told that I may be better off with an EQ setup, So I'm considering a Celestron C8-SGT but I've heard some bad reports on the CG-5 mount that comes with it ie. noise not & not being very good at tracking if you add additional load say a Skywatcher ED80. So my questions are

Will the CG-5 mount be OK if I add an ED80 to the C8 at a later date?

How easy is the setup and operation of the CG-5 compared to a fork mount?

Would the extra £450 be worth it to get an HEQ5 instead of the CG-5 mount?

The £450 is based on buying the C8 OTA for £969 and the HEQ5 mount for £780 = £1749 or the C8-SGT with the CG-5 Mount included for £1299

Thanks

Darren

[MartinB]

Here is a link to a guy in Ireland who is getting good results from a CG5

http://webtreatz.com/content/view/42/57/

And here's a good link to how to improve the performance of the CG5 (the link is down at the mo but I did have a look at it quite recently)

http://www.astronomyboy.com/cg5/index.html

To get a mount which performs optimally out of the box you have to move up to Takahashis and Astrophysics stuff. Go on to the losmandy EQ6 and CGE forums and they are full of tales of badly performing mounts needing a lot of tweaking. It seems the CG5 is particularly badly affected by inconsistent build quality so you might have to be prepared to give it a bit of TLC. Actually this is no bad thing since you learn a lot about your mount that way. I am hopeless mechanically but was able to do a full service on my Super Polaris including a complete strip down, regrease and fine adjustment of backlash. Not a difficult job provided you take photos as you go along so you can remember how everything goes.

I think an 8" SCT and an ED80 are a good combination (well I would - see the sig).

As for the ease of operation compared with a fork mount, well I think I've already said my piece on this. Fork mounted scopes in Alt Az require no polar alignment or close leveling. The movements required to align stars is completely intuitive, the observing position is always comfortable except at the absolute zenith, the tube never rotates into awkward positions, you don't have to swing the scope when you cross the meridian, there is no need for balancing unless when piggybacking another scope, the whole set up is lighter so scope and tripod can be carried out as one unit, you can view due north at any angle of declination.

However, you need a wedge for exposures longer than 45-60 secs and you can't mount anything on it bigger than an ED80 (and the ED80 is pushing it a bit because of it's oversized tube, the WO ZS80 is a better choice for this situation)

[dazza1639]

Thanks Martin

I think your right about going the fork mounted route. If I do end up going for an EQ I think that steering clear of the CG-5 is a good idea from what I've read and what you've told me it sounds like a bit of a pig even if yiu are lucky enough to get a good one.