I love my CGEM. I don't have many miles on it yet, but so-far it's a first-class mount that worked right out of the box. I did buy a couple of aftermarket embellishments (knob upgrade, cable extension), as well as the GPMS unit (worth it's weight in gold), but the basic mount is terrific. As Don said, I wouldn't run any mount right at it's rated capacity. Stay 20% under if you can, as a rule of thumb. I've bought a bunch of dovetail bars and can mount just about any of my smaller scopes on it. On 7/29/10, Don J. Colton <djcolton@piol.com> wrote:
I would recommend saving money for the CGEM mount and not spend money trying to resurrect the LXD 650. The CGEM is very easy to use and can handle up to 30 pounds with ease. It is rated for 40 pounds but I think that is a little optimistic. The Celestron interface is much easier to use than the Meade. I have also heard good reports about the imaging capabilities of the CGEM but haven't yet tried it myself.
-----Original Message-----s From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Kim Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 8:17 PM To: 'Utah Astronomy' Subject: [Utah-astronomy] More telescope mount questions
Assuming I can't repair or otherwise would have to replace my LXD 650 mount, what would anyone recommend? The OTA with finder, diagonal and larger eyepieces probably would weigh 20 to 25 pounds. As long as I have to put out the $$$ anyway, I would probably also want to eventually be able to do some imaging unless the cost gets prohibitive.
I've not been shopping for scopes and such for some time, so I was interested to come across this piece of equipment for a relatively modest price: http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=bargainsgalore/~produc t_id=09160. ;-) I do like the minimalist design of this series of scopes.
Kim
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