Well I'm up to day four with this my first GoTo mount. Accuracy is variable and lacking - at present its like daylight saving has confused things and its pointing an hour behind where everything currently is or something, plus more pointing errors.
Just some initial observations about the mount and manual.
1. The mount arrives with the Alignment peg placed between two legs rather than over one, against Celestron's advice - increasing its turning moment and chance of making a nasty whoopsie all the more likely.
2. The manual probably should suggest the following:
- Understand where 20 or so most prominent alignment guidestars are, else if the set up GoTo is wrong you will not have the knowledge to align the scope to the correct stars
- realise the design we choose means the dec motor can often knock into the RA motor housing - possibly stuffing up alignment? whenever you get to close to Alpha Centuari.
- in fact about a third to half my GoTo attempts failed outright to complete due to the motors colliding, is this a dud design like a car that can go forwards or back, right in either direction but left only in reverse? I'm wondering if this lack of clearance is simply a fatal design flaw doomed to kill half the GoTos you could issue.
- the scope doesn't understand this last point, and if there are two options to get to a new Goto point - bet your bottom dollar that it chooses the one that causes Dec motor housing to have a clunk and stop rather than take the obstruction free route
- same with the the 90 degree prisms hitting the tripod leg on some viewing angles cause of the travel route it favours
3. If you point to an incorrect wrong star as one of your three alignment stars you can't really undo, you have to re-boot and start from scratch again.
4. About 50% of the time on goto first alignment star it points below the horizon which is just plain wierd!
5. Accuracy - well its about three finger knuckles behind where it should be on Spica and Jupiter.
6. Quick align on Jupiter then move teh scope and search for Jupiter again fails. With a small move doesn't the mount is unable to find Jupiter - the one alignment star that you choose 30 seconds earlier.
7. The manual has no trouble shooting section
8. The manual has no first use diagnostic to give feedback on how to check your scope is functioning correctly (no benchmark diagnostic tests)
So right now I don't know if its a lemon, operator error and/or a setup fault
Here I go again - attempt 8 tongiht at a alignment that is accurate enough to then get within even the 8 * 30 finderscope for Jupiter.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated guys. I had such high hopes and desires and now I am left feeling very flat. Simply follwoing all directions to the best of my ability is producing very mediocre results at best.
PS
Test 10 - some better luck, changed the location from Google Earths GPS coordinates of my backyard to just the manufacturer defined Sydney and suddenly GoTo is a whole lot better. This time Jupiter was in the wide angle scope about halfway in. Still though half my GoTos fail with one of the motors hitting some the other.
PPS
Can anyone else here who uses a CG5 mount validate or refute my worries?
Set up properly does it Goto things quite accurately?
Can it be commanded to GoTo and object along a route that won't involve it briusing itself most of the time?
Many thanks guys,
Matt