New OTA for CG-3 - How Big?

I have a question I hope someone can help out with. I've acquired an old
Celestron C4.5 Reflector scope. It came with an equatorial mount -
according to the manual it is a "Polaris German Equatorial Mount" - but
there is no model number given. I think it is a CG-3 but I am not sure.
It has wooden legs (the length of which are NOT adjustable), and a
polaris finder scope.

I am interested in upgrading the OTA to a bigger reflector, and am
wondering if anyone knows or has had experience with how big a tube this
mount can handle. I was looking at the 8" and 10" Newtonian Reflectors
on Orion's website.

Any comments would be appreciated - thanks in advance for the help!

"Dave" wrote in message
...
I have a question I hope someone can help out with. I've acquired an old
Celestron C4.5 Reflector scope. It came with an equatorial mount -
according to the manual it is a "Polaris German Equatorial Mount" - but
there is no model number given. I think it is a CG-3 but I am not sure.
It has wooden legs (the length of which are NOT adjustable), and a
polaris finder scope.

I am interested in upgrading the OTA to a bigger reflector, and am
wondering if anyone knows or has had experience with how big a tube this
mount can handle. I was looking at the 8" and 10" Newtonian Reflectors
on Orion's website.

Any comments would be appreciated - thanks in advance for the help!


Hi Dave,

Is it the C4.5 from this site ?:
http://home.att.net/~telescopebluebo.../celestron.htm

If so, you don't have a CG-3 but a Polaris mount. The Polaris mount is
actually much better than a CG-3. If I'm not mistaken it's originally made
by Vixen and it's from the period before Celestron began selling Chinese
copies of the excellent Japanese Vixen mounts.

As to how big an OTA your mount can carry, I don't really have an answer. It
looks big enough to carry a 6" Newt and possibly an 8" SCT, but I leave that
to the real experts. 10" seems out of the question.

Jeroen.