Celestron CGE-Pro mount (Not to be confused with CGE)

[AlexN]

Spotted this on Cloudy Nights, Thought I should post it here...

This looks like it will be a big step up mounts for the the amateur astronomy community.. Its set to compete with the Losmandy Titan / MI-250 / AP900

(By compete, It will carry the same sort of loads, and offer similar stability... Im not in any way comparing Celestrons mass produced mounts with the likes of Mathis Instruments, Losmandy or Astro-Physics in terms of precision engineering and end product quality.)

According to a few people in the know on CN its set to be priced around the 5000 USD mark...

LINK!!
http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:mkBNRKG9U2IJ:www.cel estron.com/c3/product.php%3FCatID%3D16%26ProdID%3 D549+celestron+cge+pro&hl=ro&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=en

Sorry for the horrible link, its in Google cache... Celestron added it to their site, then removed it again, Apparently it wasnt supposed to go live yet..

Celestrons site mentioned its designed for better stability when using the C14 or bigger OTA's... Should be very very interesting....

[TrevorW]

Very interesting !!!

[edwardsdj]

That is one awesome looking mount.

[Matty P]

Looks like one cool mount. Definitely worth keeping an eye on. :)

I've always liked Celestron products.

Thanks for the heads up Alex. :thumbsup:

[g__day]

The stated pointing and tracking ability move it alot closer to a high end mount, given it can bear 100lbs - so is that 45Kg of gear + weights - or a maximum counter-weight of 45kgs? Not sure how American marketing speak works...

[AlexN]

100lbs of gear...

Its being targeted as a "budget" competitor for the Titan/AP900/EM400/MI250

Looks like a pretty damn serious bit of gear... The only problem is that Celestron gear is always WAY to expensive in Australia due to there only being one distributor... that one distributor has a fair monopoly on the market for the Celestron gear, and none of the US dealers will ship to Australia under orders of Celestron... Hence, we cop massive price hikes and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it... :(

Alex

[Matty P]

Robin, are you sure boxvoyage will send something of that size and weight?

[Tandum]

http://www.boxvoyage.com/ appears to be closed ... bugger :(

[Tandum]

Not anymore obviously as they have shut up shop but they would have previously, I'm sure. Looks like the dollar change has bit them in the ass like everyone else.

[AlexN]

MMM there are "ways" to get Celestron gear from the US to Aus without incurring Celestron's wrath.. However you'll not have a warranty... I dont know about everyone else, but if I were to drop 5K USD on a mount, I'd want a warranty in a big way....

Personally, I'd probably not bother.... In Aussie dollar you'll likely end up paying somewhere around 10k for one of these puppies... And at 10k, I'd happily throw in another 4k and get the Astro-Physics 900GTO or the Mi250 long before a celestron mount...

[Tandum]

You just need a mount to carrry all of your scopes at the same time :)

[AlexN]

Thats why my name is on the wait list for an AP1200GTO Robin...
:) No more checking balance and hoping that tonight isnt the night that your mount gives up the ghost carrying too much weight :)

[g__day]

I note the price of the CGE is around $3K USD and the pro about $5K USD - meaning after distributor rip offs here - it would retail for around $9K AUD (versus a $7.5K AUD exchange rate buy of an iternational scope).

I ponder what Amercian marketing - can carry 100lbs means - is that all gear, OTAs and counterweights for visual work - or just OTAs and gear for astrophotographic work?

[AlexN]

Matthew, From what I understand, thats just instrument weight. not including counter weights. I doubt it would be that much for photographic work.. Hence why im going for an AP mount. I know quite a few people who push AP mounts past their load capacities without a problem.. Hap griffin in the USA loads 120lbs onto his 1200GTO and has no problems at all...

[g__day]

I just don't think of Celestron as makers of high-end gear. And I think NexRemote and the Celestron hand controller as far below high-end. Even my 10 year old SkySensor2000-PC makes one of these look like a joke.

[JethroB76]

There are other places that provide a similar service such as www.priceusa.com.au (http://www.priceusa.com.au) , the question being whether they will ship such a heavy item.

[Louwai]

I saw somewhere within the last few days, where the CGE-Pro was being advertised in AU for AU$13k.
If I can find where I saw that I'll post it.

[citivolus]

~AU$15.8K w/C9.25. Distributors are at it again.

[coldspace]

AS &T magazine January 2010 edition has just done a review on this in their latest issue.
It sounds good from the review and one would expect it to perform very well at this price end, but at 12K AD too expensive compared to the US prices. It should be more like about 8 to 9K to fit in between a G11 and AP mount.
The CGE pro can carry a 14 inch tube with ease according to the review.
My mate got his AP1200 landed here for several thousand more than that with the high Aussie dollar. He has ontop of his AP1200 a 14inch Meade tube piggybacked on top is a Stellarvue 90mm and this mount is not even working.
Once you are going to spend this sort of money, might as well go full hog and get a high end proven performer mount.


Matt.

[g__day]

To me the size and quality of gears / worm and encoders are the key issues. The raw pointing accuracy would be determined by these - its not stated. The PE is over twice that of my simple Atlux - so I don't hold huge hope for its mechanical superiority of gears and encoders.

Keen to see how highly the gears and encoders are rated. Ponder why they rave on about the bearings so much and mention nothing about pointing and tracking ability.

PS

Reading the 100 pages manual - its still a very, very basic hand controller. 2 star align + 3 calibration stars - infer its King rates - doesn't say. From memory polar misalignment errors are only addressed on gotos (initial pointing) not tracking! Doesn't allow for advanced orbital periods that aren't sidereal (e.g. Moon, satellites). No read out of the calculated pointing model for the telescopes star model once its calibrated.

Guys this reads more and more like a super sized CGE with no added smarts - just bigger and larger. What they don't say speaks volumes to me and the hand controller seems a complete toy for this price range mount. One a sub $1,000 mount - like a CG5 - sure, fine, but on a mount costing over $10,000 - things should be way more sophisticated.

Matt

[AlexN]

Agreed.. Lets all remember, that the CGE-Pro sits around $12K AUD. The Paramount ME is around $13.5KUSD... The price difference (for us lowly aussies) is not great enough to warrant buying a CGE Pro. If we did not pay inflated celestron prices, it may not be so bad... but Im pretty sure we could get an Astrophysics AP900GTO for roughly the same price as the CGE Pro...

[Paul Haese]

I got to be honest here and say I would not buy a CGE pro at that price or anything over 6 grand. The CGE is a good mount (I have one at my city residence which I put my C14 onto) but it does have 10" of PE and even with software adjustment a mount that cannot track at 3" + or - PE is not worth 12 grand. My EM400 cost 12 grand and that is built like a tank and has excellent PE at 1.6" peak to peak. Save your money guys and buy a quality mount if you are going to spend 12 grand on a mount.

[g__day]

There's a review in this months Australian Sky and SPace - not a great review - more a very kind review. I note after alignment it says pointing is +/- 6 arc minutes. My Vixen Atlux at half the cost does twice as well (before MaxPoint which brings pointing to under 57 arc seconds error).

The Adjusted PE is around 5 arc seconds (again more than double the Vixen).

Bottom line - this carries alot of weight and it does look like the DEC design minimises backlash very well. The Handcontroller is no way a Gemini or SkySensor - more a toy in comparision.

[AG Hybrid]

Andrews Communication in Sydney is selling the CGE Pro for $9,999 atm.

You still need to be quite mad to buy it at that amount.

[AlexN]

Yeah. You can have a Losmandy Titan with Gemini for $100 less, carries ~5kgs more weight, tracks with 5 arcsec PE or better out of the box, improved with PEC enabled.. Even though the Titan doesnt come with a tripod, it still seems like a simple choice to me...

[terrynz]

I was considering the CGE Pro over a PME; mainly the cost aspect. However the CGE-Pro is just a bigger CGE and being a CGE owner and remembering some of the issues I've had to "make it work"; I wouldn't purchase the CGE-Pro as an upgrade. An AP900 or Titan or EM200 would be a better option for the money.

cheers
Terry

[Logieberra]

Saw this price at Andrew's site:

CGE-PRO Super-heavy duty computerised German equatorial mount and tripod. Deposit required Now $7,999.00

[g__day]

Cute - but too much money for that mount - give the AUD > USD at present and OPT Corp sell the CGE-Pro plus an 1100 EdgeHD OTA for USD $7,999 (or an 1400 EdgeHD plus CGE-Pro for USD $8,999).

Seems like alot to pay for what you get; the CGP-Pro retails at Opt for USD $4,999 ... which is about $4,954 AUD :)

PS

In no way do I infer Lee is price gouging us - just the opposite - I expect that its between Celestron and the distributor that make everyone look like saps in this arrangement. Lee has to advertise the CGE PRO 1400 EdgeHD at $19,999 AUD (RRP A$34,999) (ed. buy price in US retail in AUD is around $8,900 today)...