Upgrading to a new scope

Michael: how much is the Gemini G41??

Scratch that Michael, I found 'em here;

www.iankingimaging.com/show_products.php?category=46

Seems the gemini is quite competitive with the CGE on price.

As far as I can see from this post...the mount is king.

I have to agree with Michael...If this is a life long hobby for you, then, to me anyway, 4K seems poultry.

Keep us posted on what you decide on!!!!

Dave,
In terms of the CGE mount, the S&T review mentioned this issue. Don't have the issue number to hand.
Also, see this site.
demeautis.christophe.free.fr/ep/pe.htm

In terms of my mount, it was just over 5k all in, including taxes, shipping crates, 36kg of counterweighs and shipping. That was for the Observatory+ version. There is a Field version available - same accuracy but smaller, lighter, cheaper and lower payload capacity. If the mount was to be lugged around, then I would definetly recommend the Field version.
www.astronomy.hu/G-41.htm
If someone ever wants to take a look at my mount/observatory, you're more than welcome - just drop me a pm.

Regards,

I agree with you Michael on this one, I wouldn't go for the CGE. If you want a good GEM, go for at least a losmandy. High quality equals high price.

One thing that is abundently clear from the link Michael provided showing the PE of all those mounts is the ONLY mount which has PE < 2" is the AP1200. Thus, any mount below the AP1200 will have to be guided in one way or other for long exposure imaging. Lets face it, thats the only reason you would pay big money for a mount. If visual work is your only ambition and your not into mounting 20" newts then it makes no sense to spend a shed load of money on a high end mount.

Given that all these mounts need to be guided anyway, the next question is how well the PEC is able to deal with the periodic error, given that the examples shown on the web page show a PE of 15" for the CE and around 8" for the G11 it seems the G11 might just be able to deal with PE better.

However, I doubt whether eiter of these mounts would keep the PE <2" (even with PEC) which is really required for imaging without autoguiding. Given that autoguiding and PEC dont always get along too well, you may well have to turn PEC off anyway. The periodicity and amplitude of both PE graphs suggest that both mounts would autoguide without a whimper.

My conclusion therefore, would be that both the CGE and G11 would be very capable for autoguiding and would be able to carry similar loads the thought process turns to price. With the G11 significantly cheaper than the CGE it seems the G11 is the clear winner alright. The only caveat I'd add is try and buy the G11 from the UK rather than the US, makes service issues a lot easier to deal with. Venturescope are the UK dealers for losmandy.

Dave - check the way you are reading the charts

the AP 1200 has a peak-to-peak error of ~ 4 arcsec. I know Anthony has his down to less than 1 arcsec with PEC programmed :shock:

The CGE is abot 30 ptp and the G11 around 15 ptp

€0.02