Computerised GoTo Mount for only $300

[Stephan]

I am selling my trusty Celestron NexStar GoTo mount. This mount has a Baader adapter to accommodate telescopes with dovetail-plates like Vixen, Celestron, Orion, Sky-Watcher and all similar brands. You can find more details about the GoTo-capability of the mount here:

http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/nx80gt.htm

This set-up cost new about $800 - $850. I would like to get $300 for it.

Thanks for looking !

Clear Skies !

Stephan

Pls no spam in this thread.

[Sausageman]

Hi Stephan.

A friend of mine is looking for a Go To mount.
He is buying a second hand C8, and wants a GoTo replace the losmandy.

Will an 8" Celestron be too heavy ?

Mike (SausageMan)

[Stephan]

The C8 is too heavy.

This mount is rather suitable for smaller scopes as the ED80, a 4" richfield refractor or 4" Cassegrain maybe even a spotting scope. The mount is small and light and therefore very portable. It is probably the most portable GoTo mount there is.

Stephan

The attached pictures show some examples.

[Sausageman]

Thanks Stephan.

Oh well, I will just have to keep looking.

Mike

[g__day]

I'd be very, very interested in this at that price, subject only to some qualifying questions I'd say you have a likely sale here!

1. Can it readily handle a Skywatcher 127mm MAK (that I have on a motorised eq3-2)?
2. Is it externally powered and if so what voltage/ampage - do you supply the transformer?
3. How does the scope attach to the mount - what fittings are needed, who sells them for how much?
4. What are its go to pointing abilities like - does it track well (low and smooth periodic error)?
4. Is the mount itself stable?
5. Does it come with manuals?
6. Geographically where are you (Newcastle) - I'm in Sydney
7. Is everything in working order and good condition?

Many thanks!

[g__day]

Hello - anybody there?

[Rodstar]

Yeah, I might be interested, as a mount for an ED80. Would I need to get any special attachments to fit the ED80 to it?

Let me know how the bidding goes. I will probably make an offer depending on what others are prepared to pay.

[h0ughy]

rod look at the 3rd image in post 3, its a tV85 closeto the ed80

[acropolite]

I wish I had something to put on it, $300 sounds like a bargain with go-to. :confuse3:

[Stephan]

Hi Tech Guru,



Yes, it should handle the 5" MAK. On the bottom left picture is a Celestron C5 on the mount and I believe the Shywatcher is very similar to the C5. But of course it is the very top end of the its capability.



It has a 12V power connector and it comes with a battery holder for 8 AA batteries but no transformer. You can get transformers from **** Smith for under $20.



You need a dovetail plate (and maybe tube rings). Bintel sell them for $35 ( https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6921 ) maybe other places have them cheaper.



The object is always in the field of view when you use low magnification. I do not know how low the periodic error is.



The mount is reasonable for its size, even so the tripod could be better.



Yes, I have it as pdf and as print-out. You can download the manual here:

http://www.celestron.com/prod_pgs/tel/nx102gt.htm



Yes, I am right in Newcastle.



Yes, everything is in very good condition and of course in working order.


Hi Rod,



You need a dovetail plate and maybe tube rings. Bintel sell the dovetail plates for $35 ( https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6921 ) maybe other places have them cheaper.

Any other questions?

CS

Stephan

[Merlin66]

Stephan, check out your PM. Let me know

[g__day]

Stephan,

Thanks - that is all good news. I had a look at these mounts yesterday at National Geographic of all places, as they are having a 30% of sale of all Celestron and Bushnell GoTo scopes (between $500 - $1190 for the complete tripod, go to mount and OTA package).

The Celestron Nexstar 4GT was rock solid and firm - its the one with round tripod legs and a base plate between them with a rod to the centre of mount that pulls the base plate up and locks the tripod and mount rigidly - it was simply excellent.

The other one that looks like your picture - sliding flat legs and a trianglar plate in between - correctly tensioned - was wobble central! It was unbelievably bad and no amount of set up could address this rather odious problem.

So my question - can this mount be attached to a better tripod? Can you take a picture of this - how the mount attaches to the tripod and if simply a better tripod can fix this error. Because the mount itself seems nice but attached to the wrong tripod it would irration central.

e.g. see http://www.frisk.org/astroimages/N5i.html


Also what exact model is this mount please - is it simply Celestron NexStar GoTo mount or is it Nexstar 80GT and what re-vision (age) - reading on the web reveals that these models over 2 years old suffered alot of design errors that were subsequently fixed. (e.g. "There are some annoying design problems. As many other reviews have noted, the battery pack is a pain. The connection to the scope slides out far too easily, dumping alignment. Also, the wiring on the battery pack itself is fairly fragile. As soon as you break the scope out of the box, you should Velcro or tape the battery pack to the motorized mount (not the tripod legs). This will save you some disappointment. I was also disappointed in the readability of the hand controller. As the text scrolls by, it's very difficult to read. Don't fret too much about this, though. After you align it once or twice - you won't need to read the display that often, anyway").


Regardless, I think your offer is very good and am interested - you have my contact details in my first PM.

Many thanks!

[Stephan]

Hi Matthew,



I am not sure what you want. I am selling a GoTo mount only (no OTA) for what I believe is the lowest price you can get a GoTo-mount for. If you want a complete set-up (mount and OTA) I can not help you. In this case you should just get one of those from National Geographic.

What telescope do you want to use with the mount and are you actually interested in the mount?



Agree, but it cost about $1000 new or $700 second hand and it is only working with 4" MAK and no other scope.



For an extra $30 I can make you an adapter plate to fit the mount to other tripods. What tripod do you want to use?



I changed the power plug, its no problem anymore.



I have not done it because I used a power adapter with a long cable, but this is certainly easy to fix.



You get used to it. And by the way that is a problem what all hand controller with single line display suffer from.

CS

Stephan

[g__day]

Stephan,

I'm just after the mount, but mount plus tripod is okay too! I have an eq3-2 mount for a 5" skywatcher MAK.

Let's do this then, I've PM'd you my contact details, lets agree final deal cause I'd be happy to take you up on that tripod adapter for $30 and get you to arrange shipping (posting) too - so all I need is a final total amount to get payment to you (direct transfer from my account or cheque - whatever you'd prefer) and give you my home address of course!

[Stephan]

The mount is sold to Ken.

Thanks Ken !


If anybody is interested, I am able to adapt another mount but it would take me about 4 weeks (I am a bit busy at present). I do that only on request and I need a deposit of $20.

CS

Stephan

[Rodstar]

Stephan, I am still wanting a mount for the ED80 I have just bought for my 4 year old. Basic mount, EQ2/3 level.

Not sure what you mean by the above.....do you have another mount? I am looking for something basic and second hand, say $150.

[g__day]

So Ken bet my PM'd offer given days ago that you didn't notice or respond to, well done Ken, but very poor form for selling behaviour leaving an offer on the table that long and not acknowledging it.

Accept it was an honest mistake, but it rankles.

[Stephan]

Mathew,

1. You never told me you wanted to buy the mount nor did I ever get an offer from you (neither in a PM nor in the thread)!
2. I wrote you a PM only with the offer to get you another GoTo mount as I offered it in the thread to everybody !
3. I did not admit a mistake or any wrong doing because I did not do anything wrong !
4. All you did in the thread here was trying to make me look bad, what is against the rules of this forum !

Stephan

[janoskiss]

g__day, if you did send that offer, check your Sent folder before going any further with this. It may not have been sent. I had lost 2 or 3 PMs over the past year (one very recently) that I was sure I sent, but later I could not see them in my Sent folder. And the intended recipient did not get anything either. So now I always check my sent folder after sending a PM of any importance.

[g__day]

Well the request for a call with my contact details and some questions went out 2 hours after Stephan posted the original for sale.

My first comment was "I'd be very, very interested in this at that price, subject only to some qualifying questions I'd say you have a likely sale here!" - that's called a conditional offer in commercial terms.

No call from Stephan but questions all answered. Mind you if question were answered by returning the PM deal would have been done on Friday.

So I waited and waited - no result.

So next day I post is anybody there - kept on waiting...

I chanced into a store that sold these types of mounts and tripods and some some where firm and some wobbly as all hell - so I queried that. Online - as Stephan still hadn't returned my PM to close a deal.

Stephan was wondering if I wanted the telescope too but got round to saying yes the mount is shaky but he can try and fix the tripod for a price.

So I say okay lets do this.

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Feed up and point out there's an offer and a week old PM awaiting contact details to make a final offer....

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Sold to someone else - me a little surprised so I queried this...

So end result

Point 1. - wrong if you read carefully or checked your PMs 3/2 at 4:15 pm (yes it was sent) on a timely fashion - but lets just say it was mis-intrepretation not carelessness
2. - Extremely generous
3. I can only present what I saw, tried and experienced - let me say it was very frustrating being ignored - there is a point to learn from that I'd suggest
4. No all I did was point out factually what happened which was below the standard of care I expected from anyone doing a sale. Had you even SMS'd me your contact details 6 days ago matter would been addressed very quickly. I'm 44 and don't feel the need to play games with anyone.

End result is I sense no malice on your part but somehow you missed a clear buy signal and multiple requests for your details to finalise a sale for many days.

I still wanted resolution on how steady that mount is - more a tripod than the mount issue.

You are probably feeling defensive - which is normal in this sort of situation, as I believe you set out to be totally above board and resent being question - possibly until you learnt how things appeared from my side of the table. I expect you are a great guy and wish you all the best. Suggest for dignity sake we let it rest there.

[janoskiss]

Sounds like too much fuss over a basic mount... :rolleyes:

And anything along the lines of 'ring me and we can work out a deal' does not sound like much of an offer to me... :shrug: Something like 'I'll give you $XXX for it' is what I'd call an offer. Sorry, I don't see why you're upset G.

[iceman]

Well I don't know of any content in PM's, but from the replies I've seen here I didn't see any transaction..

Showing interest and asking questions does not give the sole right to buy.

Anyway I'm sure it's all just a miscommunication or misunderstanding.