New Scope Mount Confusion

[Soren (Ben)]

G'day,

I'm fairly new to scopes, having only used my trusty bino's for years - But I've recently decided to purchase a scope.

Since the AUD is so strong vs. the USD at the moment, I was looking at importing one from the USA. At the moment I'm looking at Celestron C6-A Optical Tube (comes to $700 after postage from Adorama) and buying a mount locally. This is where i'm a bit confused.

The Celestron website indicates that the scope is compatible with a "CG-5" type mount. Is this some sort of generic mount that alot of scopes use, or do I have to purchase a specific brand of mount? Is there any other name this type of mount is gone by?

I could only find one sort of mount for sale in Australia - And that was rather expensive and had a goto attachment. I was looking for a simple mount with the ability to fit a basic drive motor to counteract planetary rotation (and allow me to slew the view).

I'm a little lost - So any help, guidance, or some websites with guides to mounts (i'm not having much luck finding any thus far myself) would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

Edit: I found the stickies in the other forum for beginners - And now I'm thinking about getting a 8" dob, as this seems to be the status quo for newbies. Plus they seem to run around ~$400 and from what I understand, give comparable images to what I was thinking about setting up.

[dannat (Daniel)]

soren usually any optical tube can fit on any mount - though some mounts may need an adapter as a go between.
a lot of mounts copy the mounting setup on original vixen mounts, losmandy mounts use a slightly diff system so you just buy there adapter.

if buying scope from o/seas why not buy a package?

there are not many new basic mounts that can hold a decent amount of weight

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

You may have trouble buying a Celestron OS. They seem not allow that if there are local dealers.
Geoff

[NorthernLight (Max)]

Hi Ben,

the CG-5 mount from Celestron belongs to the category of equatorial mounts and is in it´s payload capacity and tracking accuarcy similar to other EQ5-type mounts (Skywatcher EQ5 i.e.).
One dealer in Australia sells the basic EQ5 without motors for just under 600AUD (Bintel) I haven´t looked up other pages but Andrews might have the same for a similar/better price.
Motors will cost you probably around 200-300 AUD; so alltogether you save around 500AUD compared to a GOTO mount of the same capacity class like the Skywatcher HEQ5 (in the USA it´s called Orion Sirius I think). But this one offers an autoguider port and GOTO functionality. So if you start thinking about getting into astrophotography, it will pay to invest the 500 extra now rather than byuing a new mount altogether.
The C6 on a GOTO upgraded CG-5 is available at Andrews for 1760AUD but I am not sure about the autoguider port availability on that mount.

PS:On a personal note I would not recomend an EQ mount if you mainly use the scope from you backyard and this backyard has blocked view to the south celestial pole. As all EQ mounts require you to align them with this point in the sky - otherwise they are pretty much useless. A Dobson-type mounted Newtonian telescope doesn´t require any aligning, offers much more light gathering power for the money (12" scope=900AUD) and will probably be used more often as the preparation time is much shorter. Both types need some time to cool down to ambient, and both scopes have to be mated to the mount. but the eq-version requires also power to the mount, leveling and pol-align.

PPS: 6" is the entry-entry size --->Aperture rules!

Cheers

[Geoff45 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by NorthernLight

PS:On a personal note I would not recomend an EQ mount if you mainly use the scope from you backyard and this backyard has blocked view to the south celestial pole. As all EQ mounts require you to align them with this point in the sky - otherwise they are pretty much useless.
Cheers

As long as you can see some part of the meridian within 40 degrees of the celestial equator and be able to see either east or west near the horizon there is no problem aligning a GEM. You don't have to have to be able to see the SCP. Just use a compass to roughly point N-S and then drift align.

[Soren (Ben)]

Thanks very much to everyone for taking the time to respond, I really appreciate it

After reading the above, I'm leaning towards scrapping the idea of importing one and purchasing a dobsonian. The phase 'aperture rules' seems to have been stuck in my brain for the moment and the 10" Skywatcher Dob from andrews for $700+$50 shipping is looking like a pretty decent choice for my first scope

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Yeah, go the 10", loving mine, amazing views. I just bought the two mirrors from Bintel and built the rest but it's been a good call for the view. Aperture rules.