Article: Setting Up and Using a Celestron CG5 Mount

iceman (Mike) · #1 11-06-2008, 05:10 PM

Geoff Young (asterisk) has written an article describing how to Set Up and Use a Celestron CG5 Mount.

You can read the article from the IceInSpace Projects & Articles page, or directly by clicking on the link below:

Setting Up and Using a Celestron CG5 Mount

Thanks to Geoff for taking the time to write the article and submit it to IceInSpace. If you'd like to submit an article or review to IceInSpace, please Contact Me.

iceman (Mike) · #2 12-06-2008, 02:28 PM

Article uploaded.

g__day (Matthew) · #3 13-06-2008, 01:15 AM

Good article Geoff. Having owned a CG5 for a year or two - let me add some extra comments.

The DEC housing alignment marks being 180 degrees wrong happened to me on install - very annoying and Celestron technical support couldn't diagnose the problem or even accept it was happening (they told me no less than 5 times I simply couldn't be seeing what I described). Set up and align this way and you will find that 1 in every 3 slews would cause the motor housings to collide when its set up with DEC inverted. I had to send Celestron technical support a video before they would believe my problem! Still a Yahoo Groups website explained the error where Celestron Technical support couldn't even accept the error!

It's very annoying that the mount has no simple clock to allow it to remember last align on power off / on.

My first one died - dreaded unit error 15 (a power switch problem I believe) at month 6 - Andrews Comms got it fixed / replaced in about 3 weeks.

The elevation scale was about 3 degrees off (forget just the level bubble being wrong) - remove it, and hot glued it on correctly.

The tripod is quite good, but the stainless steel legs are looking slightly brown to me and they have been under a balcony for 5 months... hmmm?

Get or make a 4 pin cable to upgrade the firmware or control it VIA ASCOM from Cartes du Ceil - works a treat.

Auto-guiding with PHD was very good with this mount.

It can image well right up to 15 - 17 kgs counterbalance - in wind protected conditions - which greatly surprised and pleased me.

Its pointing and PE were within expectations for a mount costing round $1,200 at the time. I never did a MaxPoint run to really determine pointing accuracy after a 6 star set-up, but I'd guess its around +/- 2 degrees all over the sky.

madtuna (Steve) · #4 13-06-2008, 01:26 AM

I still cant find where to put the coffee beans in????

any ideas on making it quieter?

OneOfOne (Trevor) · #5 13-06-2008, 07:21 AM

I thought my CG5 was noisy too...until I heard a Meade!

An interesting "feature" I found with the CGE, which may have worked on the CG5, is picking alignment stars. Often I would find I can easily identify 2 in the west and only 1 in the east, but it wanted 1 in the west and 2 in the east! If I press the Menu button on the CGE, it switches over. I had sold it before I found this out, does the CG5 do this? This used to be really frustrating some times.

I don't think it is in the manual as I recall....

asterisk (Geoff) · #6 13-06-2008, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

I thought my CG5 was noisy too...until I heard a Meade!

An interesting "feature" I found with the CGE, which may have worked on the CG5, is picking alignment stars. Often I would find I can easily identify 2 in the west and only 1 in the east, but it wanted 1 in the west and 2 in the east! If I press the Menu button on the CGE, it switches over. I had sold it before I found this out, does the CG5 do this? This used to be really frustrating some times.

I don't think it is in the manual as I recall....

There is a lot that is not in the manual. I read somewhere that you are able to swap east/west on the CG5, but that was after I learnt very quickly where the required stars were, and do not now remember which key enables this feature - it may have been the MENU button.

If you are unable to see a star (obstructed horizon) or don't know that particular star, pressing the Up(6)/Down(9) buttons presents alternate stars.

Following the procedure I outlined in the article, by the time it gets to the third star, it is almost spot on (using the laser), and I have learnt which stars are where more from the improved accuracy of the mount than any other means.

Cheers