Celestron AS-GT performance?

Hi all, I would like to purchase a Celestron CG-5 AS-GT mount but I have
received several advices about it low quality, however, I found it has a
very competitive price. Do you have experience with it? What do you think
about it performance?
Thanks in advanced

Mario

Mario Morales wrote:
Hi all, I would like to purchase a Celestron CG-5 AS-GT mount but I
have
received several advices about it low quality, however, I found it
has a
very competitive price. Do you have experience with it? What do you
think
about it performance?
Thanks in advanced

Mario


Hi:

Whether the mount is of good or low quality is somewhat relative and
depends on your expectations. In any event, most of the owners are
quite satisfied with the As CG5, and have been able to do imaging with
it. My suggestion is that you join the Yahoo "Celestron AS" group and
go through the archives there.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of:_Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

"Mario Morales" wrote in message
...
Hi all, I would like to purchase a Celestron CG-5 AS-GT mount but I have
received several advices about it low quality, however, I found it has a
very competitive price. Do you have experience with it? What do you
think
about it performance?
Thanks in advanced

Mario
It is 'not bad'.
For the price it is good. It is _not_ capable of properly carrying some of
the scopes supplied on it (personally, it is OK for the C8, but is
straining a little for the C9.25, and well overloaded with the C11). It
can benefit massively from better grease on the gears. The power cable is
silly (too thin, and long), but with a replacement cable, and a little
'nurturing', it can work very well indeed. I spent a couple of evenings
'regreasing', and adjusting one for a friend, and it now tracks well,
aligns well, and draws less current when slewing. He uses his alternately,
with a C5, and a small ED scope, and it will track for ages, and go where
expected.

Best Wishes

I recently got one of these and am pleased with it. The
price-performance ratio is very good. I got the 9 1/4 SCT with the
AS-GT mount. I also use it with a refractor. I needed to mess with it
a bit but the whole goto thing really does work. I am still getting
used to the mount, but it is a nice change. There is some play in the
gears, but it still works well for its size, weight, and cost.

The mount runs about $750, which is a very good price for something
that has a sophisticated goto and can be used with multiple (small)
telescope tubes. I have not tried any long exposure photography, and
don't really expect to, but others have used this mount for
astrophotography with some success. If I were serious about
astrophotogrtaphy I would go to a higher end mount (Losmandy,
Astrophysics, Paramount). However, those mounts are MUCH more
expensive than the AS-GT mount. You could buy the AS-GT, decide you
like it and them spend the $$$ to get a very serious mount. Reselling
the AS-GT would only put you back a few dollars on the whole deal, and
you would ahve a much better idea waht you are getting into with a GEM
GOTO mount.

"Scott" wrote in message
ups.com...
I recently got one of these and am pleased with it. The
price-performance ratio is very good. I got the 9 1/4 SCT with the
AS-GT mount.

Does the mount hold steady for visual use at higher powers? (300-400x)

This scope/mount might be on my wish list if it can. Also, at lower powers,
how do you like it on clusters?

-Banjo