Good deal on a new mount

Nov 4, 2003

The only imaging platform I’ve ever had is my 10” LX200. I’ve put blood, sweat, and tears into squeezing the most performance from this scope that I can. Unfortunately, I discovered over the last year that the amount of periodic and random error inherent in the gears just didn’t make the LX200 a good platform for prime focus imaging at the OTA’s 2500mm focal length.  Obtaining images without oblong stars has been nearly impossible. The only chance I’ve had is to train properly the periodic error from my drives.  But this has been very difficult since my drives don’t seem to respond to the guiding corrections from my autoguider, at least consistently. I’ve had good results from piggybacking upon the LX200 with 300mm lens (and less), but that’s only because such short focal lengths give much greater lenience where trailed stars are concerned.

Therefore, I’ve been looking for a good EQ mount for quite a while now. I’ve been looking for something sturdy enough to hold the 10” LX200 optical tube and perhaps also my Tak FSQ-106, at the same time. Such a configuration would provide great flexibility; I could image with the Tak and guide through the LX200, or I could do CCD imaging through the SCT without all the fat stars.

Such a mount, one that also gives room to grow, costs over $5000. I’d pretty much narrowed it down to either the Mountain Instruments MI-250, the Takahashi NJP, or the Astro-Physics AP900, each with their own GOTO configurations. But finding a good deal on these mounts is difficult at best, and I don’t want to go into this winter without a mount that I can depend upon to give me some good images, at least with the Tak 106.

So when I saw the new Celestron CGE mount advertised on Astromart for only $2000 plus shipping, I knew that this was my opportunity. I also knew that I’d better be the first to place a bid, because this mount wouldn’t be around for much longer at that price. Fortunately, I caught the advertisement very soon after it was posted.

The new mount is produced by Celestron as the successor to the Ci-700 and to compete with the Losmandy G-11 mount, an outstanding value in its own regard. Like the G-11, it has a rated payload capacity of 65 lbs. but with a GOTO Nexstar system right out of the box (the G-11 uses the third party Gemini GOTO system). Celestron provides this excellent mount at $2999, a full $150 cheaper than its Losmandy cousin.

Early reviews of the new mount are few, but encouraging. The amount of periodic error is quite good (not great) and the pointing precision is quite accurate. Skynews Magazine suggests that the CGE mount works well with the 11” Celestron Schmidt-Cass OTA for prime focus, CCD imaging.  Certainly the same could be said with my own 10” Meade OTA.

I should take delivery of the mount next week, which is new except for a couple of scratches on the tripod feet where it met the ground the two times the previous owner used it (he bought it with the 14” OTA and quickly realized that it was too much scope for the mount when doing imaging…so he bought a Paramount ME to go with the tube…drool).

It’s certainly not my dream mount, nor is it in the quality of mounts that I had my eye on, but the Celestron CGE might be just what I need to get some solid images with my current scopes. And at two-grand, it’s hard to find a better deal on any mount.

I look forward to putting it through its paces and reviewing its performance.  More than that, I look forward to finally getting some good images of the great winter sky objects.  My gallery pages seem naked without them.