Need CG-5 Mount advice PLEASE

Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them, love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro mount were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts have no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway

In my experience the Skyview Pro is very similar to but no carbon copy of
the CG5, so many parts are not interchangeable. Additionally, there are
many mounts on the market which are loosely referred to as CG5, but they are
not the same. I suggest that you take a few close up shots of your mount
and post a link so that we could see it. You could also go on the
"astronomy boy" site and compare your mount with the pictures of CG5's shown
on that site.

Al


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very
pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them, love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount
which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro mount
were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts have
no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

Great idea! What do you think?

http://www.teachu.com/help.htm



"Al" wrote in message
et...
Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway

In my experience the Skyview Pro is very similar to but no carbon copy of
the CG5, so many parts are not interchangeable. Additionally, there are
many mounts on the market which are loosely referred to as CG5, but they
are
not the same. I suggest that you take a few close up shots of your mount
and post a link so that we could see it. You could also go on the
"astronomy boy" site and compare your mount with the pictures of CG5's
shown
on that site.

Al


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very
pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them,
love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount
which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro mount
were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will
not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts have
no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice
Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with
the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

Doink

Check out www.astronomyboy.com An excellent web pages with pictures
of the CG5 and tune ups. He also describes the diffeernce between the
old mount and new one. Your link looks like the cg5 but check out the
above link.

Rich


On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 20:02:25 -0800, "Doink"
wrote:

Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them, love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro mount were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts have no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

"Doink" wrote in message
...
Great idea! What do you think?

http://www.teachu.com/help.htm

I don't have my cg-5 anymore, but that sure looks identical to what I
remember.

Clear Skies

Chuck Taylor
Do you observe the moon?
Try the Lunar Observing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lunar-observing/
Lunar Picture of the Day http://www.lpod.org/
************************************


"Al" wrote in message
et...
Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was
ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway

In my experience the Skyview Pro is very similar to but no carbon copy
of
the CG5, so many parts are not interchangeable. Additionally, there are
many mounts on the market which are loosely referred to as CG5, but they
are
not the same. I suggest that you take a few close up shots of your
mount
and post a link so that we could see it. You could also go on the
"astronomy boy" site and compare your mount with the pictures of CG5's
shown
on that site.

Al


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very
pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them,
love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount
which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro
mount
were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will
not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts
have
no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice
Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with
the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was
ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

The mount you show in the picture is distributed by Konus. It's one of
those mounts considered to be a clone of the CG5, but it's not exactly the
same. If you want drive motors to work on this mount, contact Konus or a
Konus dealer. Additionally, the lower mount hub is different than the hub
on a CG5. This one is made with 3 sets of 2-piece ears to mount up to the
tubular tripod supplied by Konus, but will not work with the standard
extendable tripod. In order to make it work with one of these tripods, you
will need to replace the hub with a CG5 hub. You can buy this from
Celestron, who get $15 plus $5 shipping.

Al


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Great idea! What do you think?

http://www.teachu.com/help.htm



"Al" wrote in message
et...
Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was
ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway

In my experience the Skyview Pro is very similar to but no carbon copy
of
the CG5, so many parts are not interchangeable. Additionally, there are
many mounts on the market which are loosely referred to as CG5, but they
are
not the same. I suggest that you take a few close up shots of your
mount
and post a link so that we could see it. You could also go on the
"astronomy boy" site and compare your mount with the pictures of CG5's
shown
on that site.

Al


"Doink" wrote in message
...
Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very
pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them,
love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount
which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro
mount
were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will
not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts
have
no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice
Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with
the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was
ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

Thanks to everyone who posted. I suspected that this was a Konus clone
except that the other one I got is identical and it came with a Celestron
102OTA

I've never seen posts of people having trouble locating drives for common
mounts----is this a common problem or is the Orion drive more specific to
their mount and the general CG-5 drive more generally a CG-5
drive....clones, et al.?

Doink

"Rich McMahon" wrote in message
...
Doink

Check out www.astronomyboy.com An excellent web pages with pictures
of the CG5 and tune ups. He also describes the diffeernce between the
old mount and new one. Your link looks like the cg5 but check out the
above link.

Rich


On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 20:02:25 -0800, "Doink"
wrote:

Hi again...

I started with an Orion SkyView Pro mount on my 8" reflector...very
pleased
with that mount. Bought the dual drives from Orion, installed them, love
it.

Ok, I bought a 5" refractor on astroMart, then I bought a second mount
which
I'm told is a CG-5. Orion told me the drives for the Skyview pro mount
were
the same so I bought them. They are NOT the same. The RA drive will not
fit properly in the compartment. So, what do I need? These mounts have
no
markings...I say these because I bought (damn astromart!) a nice
Celestron
refractor (Jananese OTA) which came on a CG-5 mount...same story with the
drives...

Are the Sky View Pro Drives NOT interchangeable? How do I know if I
really
have a CG-5? The two I bought are identical....so, the drives from
Anacortes for CG-5s should work??? Really drive frustrated....Was ready
to
just order a couple mounts from Orion! They're better anyway!

Anyone know anything that can help me in this?

Doink

Al wrote:
The mount you show in the picture is distributed by Konus. It's one
of those mounts considered to be a clone of the CG5, but it's not
exactly the same.

A clone of a CG-5, which itself is a clone of a Vixen GP? I knew Vixen
clones existed, but I didn't know Vixen clone-clones existed.....

I just bought a Vixen GPDX, I prefer the original :-)

Clear skies
Carsten A. Arnholm
http://arnholm.org/
N59.776 E10.457

"Carsten A. Arnholm" wrote in message
...
Al wrote:
The mount you show in the picture is distributed by Konus. It's one
of those mounts considered to be a clone of the CG5, but it's not
exactly the same.

A clone of a CG-5, which itself is a clone of a Vixen GP? I knew Vixen
clones existed, but I didn't know Vixen clone-clones existed.....

I just bought a Vixen GPDX, I prefer the original :-)

Clear skies
Carsten A. Arnholm
http://arnholm.org/
N59.776 E10.457



You are correct! The CG5 is a clone of the Vixen GP and I misspoke.
However, the DX is quite different from the GP and from the clones.

Al

Al wrote:
"Carsten A. Arnholm" wrote in message
...
Al wrote:
The mount you show in the picture is distributed by Konus. It's one
of those mounts considered to be a clone of the CG5, but it's not
exactly the same.

A clone of a CG-5, which itself is a clone of a Vixen GP? I knew
Vixen clones existed, but I didn't know Vixen clone-clones
existed.....

I just bought a Vixen GPDX, I prefer the original :-)

You are correct! The CG5 is a clone of the Vixen GP and I misspoke.
However, the DX is quite different from the GP and from the clones.

Al

Yes, the GPDX is different. I have now 2 mounts, a Vixen SP (1986 vintage,
GP precursor) and the GPDX I just bought. I have some pictures of my old SP
and a GPDX identical to the one I just bought at
http://arnholm.org/astro/gpdx_sp/

The GPDX is more accurate and has a higher carryng capacity than the GP. The
experience with the SP was so positive that I wanted to stay with Vixen. I
am going to measure the periodic error of the GPDX once the fog lifts around
here. I am expecting it to be better than the 25 arc second PE my SP has. I
think the clones are considerably more inaccurate (or at least not
consistently good), from what I have heard.

Clear skies
Carsten A. Arnholm
http://arnholm.org/
N59.776 E10.457