Hi there, I'm going to be buying a new telescope soon but I'm a little
confused about the interaction between different kinds of mounts and
the GOTO computer features on the Meade & Celestron SCTs! I've had an
8" Newtonian on an equatorial mount before, but I'm very tempted by
the ease-of-use of a GOTO system.

I'm looking at buying an 8-10" SCT. Although initially it will be used
for "fun", I want to get into some more serious astrophotography at
some point. Therefore I understand that I really want an equatorial
mount - fork mounts just won't cut the mustard. But I'm also attracted
by the idea of "a quick two-star alignment and go" on the fork mounts.

I've had a look at the Celestron & Meade manuals. But the manuals seem
to suggest you can do "quick two-star alignment and go" with the
equatorially-mounted GOTO systems. How can this be? If the polar axis
isn't aligned properly it shouldn't be able to track at all?

They do stress that for "serious" astrophotography you will still have
to do a proper polar alignment, but also that you can use the
equatorial mount with a quick 2-star alignment.

Do these computerized equatorial mounts adjust in declination as well
as RA? What happens if you have the mount pointing in completely the
wrong direction, then do a 2-star alignment and tell it to take it
from there? I'm a bit confused!

I'd be particularly interested to hear from any users of the Celestron
CGE mount!

Many thanks for your helpful replies,

Phil.

P.S. I live in England, so I'll probably never get to use the thing
anyway (weather)!