controlling Celestron CG-5 Motors from laptop

Hi Guys.

Im looking to get motors for my Celestron CG5 mount. I have found these www.celestron.com/c2/product.php?ProdID=281 but what i would like to know is this, is it possible to hook these motors to a laptop and control the scope from the laptop, with no re-wiring ? What else do i require to allow this?

Fintan,

Those motors will NOT allow you connect through a laptop, nor will they allow autoguiding should you want to go down that route. Further this does not do GOTO. These purely provide tracking for the mount.

If you want all of those other features you will need an upgrade which includes an RS232 port (for PC control). I don't know of any celestron upgrades but there are upgrades by the likes of skywatcher which work with this calss of mount (known as GP clones because they were copied from the original Vixen Great Polaris mounts).

The one I know of is the 'SynScan GO-TO UPGRADE' you can find it here;

www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_acc.../telescope_mountings

Almost forgot, triple check that the kit you order is compatible with your mount. Get it in writing if you can:)

Thanks for the great info Dave. The updgade kit is a lot more expensive than I thought it should be. I could just sell the cg-5 and get the sc5 GT and it would prob be cheaper. il keep looking for the time being.