CG5 Mount - How Good?

Dave,

No words can describe my anxiety and eagerness to get the AP1200GTO in my hands. Excuse the pun but it will literally open up the universe for me. I have prepared all kinds of new web pages in relation to very interesting and rare deep sky projects and I am sure we will have lots of goodies to look at and discuss.

As always, some patience. June is not too far away anyway.

Anthony.

I can imagine the eagerness - like mine to get that little note from AP saying that my AP160 is ready to order...

Rare deep sky projects - can't wait :!:

Dave

To be honest guys, nice as an AP1200 would be, there is few that can afford such a beautiful beast.

Whereas you are right that a really good mount is highly desireable, i'd have to say that the CG5 is well up to the job including astrophotography. One review of the CG5 I read (S&T August 05) stated clearly that the CG5 couldnt be autoguided, this is patently untrue. I autoguide with it all the time.

Have a look at my california nebula shot, that was taken with an ED80 on a CG5 the guiding is fine. Particularly since astrophotography is going more in the way of stacked images than single photos there is less reliance on the mount as there used to be. Even polar alignment is not as critical as it used to be.

Look at it another way;
CG5 Price 749STG - AP1200 (dunno exactly 8000dollars??)
Result with both can be sharply tracked photos.

I'd say on a pure value for money basis there is no mount to beat the CG5. When I bought the mount I was sure that I'd be investing in something like a losmandy G11 as soon as I could afford it. After having it for a year, i'll be finding something more useful to spend my hard saved dosh on!!

Keith my advice, go for it, i'll even help you with the autoguiding!!

Oh yeah and did I mention portability?

Dave - thanks for dishing out that healthy spoonful of reality

You're absolutely right that the AP1200 and the Paramount would be beyond most people's reach. I guess I'm just very lucky that I had both the opportunity and the money. But I have to be honest and tell you that having had the mount for a year its only now that the bank balance has really recovered!

You're right about astrophotography in general going the way of many stacked short exposures and if folks stuck to that, there'd be objects to image for many years.

However ( ) my own personal goal has always been science. I'm starting off with astrometry then moving on to photometry. So far I have been able to accurately image a 16 Mag asteroid and position it to within 00 00 00.01 RA and 00 00 00.1 Dec of the MPL predicted position. Its unlikely I could have done that, or achieved it as quickly without a really good mount. And without the AP, I certainly would not be able to image much above say Mag 15. As it stands, I can get 17.9 with an 8" SCT.

That said, of course, firing off those interesting deep sky images of short exposure duration doesn't take half the effort (though it still takes a lot of effort!) and doesn't require the kind of accuracy you get with an AP mount.

I tell people in my astrophotography presentation that they need to have clear goals for what they want to do. This will determine the type of equipment they need and the kind of money they can expect to have to dish out. If that's too expensive, then goals need to be changed. Horses for courses I guess and cutting one's cloth....

Keith - the CG5 clearly gets a rating of well above five from Dave and based on the fact that his images are pretty much the best on this site, I'd say that was a slam dunk decision for you!

HTH

Dave

I've been offered it with a CG5 Mount, not the RGT Mount (which is also a cg5, but is the ADVANCED GT Mount)

Keith, I'm just rereading this. Am I right in saying you are thinking of the CG5 Advanced Series? If not I'd think long and hard. You need the features of the advanced series mount. Stuff slike precise goto, inbuilt polar alignment routines and lots of other features are included on the AS series. I cannot vouch for any other CG5 variant as this CG5 AS is the one I have.

Dave, your dead right of course about having clear goals. Thats gotta be the number one decision and for your goals only the AP1200 will cut it. But for the rest of us mere mortals, the CG5 AS will do just fine!!

Thanks for all your advice lads...

Keith, I'm just rereading this. Am I right in saying you are thinking of the CG5 Advanced Series

Yes! Absolutely, see here:
www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/c80rgt.htm

But what i'm buying is not the rgt mount, they won't be available in Ireland until the summer

It's just an ordinary cg5 mount. I agree Dave, I thought the difference between the two was just 1. more objects to goto, and 2. GPS Compatible

Man, I really have been at pains to save the cash all this time...i don't want a mount that's just ok at best...

I think i'll wait so......

Keith..