Telescope Reviews: Celestron CG5-GT Mount

Thank you, Tony and others, for your very useful info on
the Celestron CG5-GT mount. Last week, I just received
the Celestron 6 inch Refractor
mounted on the CG%-GT mount (got at Woodland
Hills Camera and Telescope) and I am hoping for
a chance soon to take it out for first light.
From what I see indoors, it certainly looks stable,
and I'm grateful for the heads up about not tightening
the tripod legs too much. As this is my first real
experience with this kind of mount, I was surprised
when the mount came with a 6 inch long dovetail plate
with two unthreaded holes that exactly matched a longer,
footlong dovetail that bridged between the two rings
on the 6 inch refractor. I called Celestron since
I was confused, and they said to mount the refractor
onto the CG-5 directly using the footlong dovetail that
comes attached to the tube rings, and they told me
that the 6 inch long dovetail that comes with the mount
is only for if you want to put cameras or something
else on to the mount. However, this arrangement seems
quite loose and unstable: even though there is the
main tightening knob and a smaller diagonally-placed
shiny knob to tighten down onto the dovetail, Celestron
said to just use the big clamping knob (with the
black plastic knob handle) and clamp onto the footlong
dovetail, and not to use the diagonal mini-screw at
all. The problem I see is that at a public star
party (I'm a librarian and do public star parties at
branch libraries), someone could just loosen the
main clamping knob just a little and the long 6
inch refractor (f8) would just come sliding down
onto the ground in no time! At least with the 6
inch dovetail that was supplied, there are little
notches so that the screws are more secure in the
notches; also using it you would always know where
to attach the tube for correct balancing without
having to make marks on the longer unnotched dovetail.
The Celestron Tech did not recommend piggybacking
the footlong dovetail onto the 6 inch notched
dovetail below it due to stability reasons; however
I went to the hardware store, got hex screws, washers
and wingnuts, and did just that (making a good tight
connection), so I can see if there
is any sacrifice in stability with the two dovetail
bars piggybacked. It just seems better to lock
the smaller dovetail into place using the mounts two
clamping screws going into where the dovetail notches
are. Do you or anyone else who has this mount have
any experience with these dovetail mounts?
The other question I had is about power supply.
Woodland Hills C&T sold me an AC adapter so I can
power the GT in my back yard with AC; however the
AC runs on 1.5 amps and the Celestron website says
the Advanced Series can't use AC power since it
takes 2 amps only. Woodland Hills reported no problems
with customers using the 1.5 amp AC, and Celstron
also told me that it would probably work fine, though
since there's less amps than it officially needs that
the goto might seem sluggish at times. I have not
yet experimented with this due to lack of time, but
will let you know when I do. Since all they supply
is a DC adapter for the car, it looks like I'm going
to have to buy the $60 power pack for it.
Everything seems real smooth and nice. The bubble
level seems cheap and doesn't seem to be correct on
leveling, but the dealer suggested not to use it since
it's so tiny, and just to use a regular leveler
spread out over the accessory tray for better leveling.
Someone suggested using WD40 on the scope to
protect the metal -- would you guys suggest that, and
if so, where does the WD40 go? (I'm a newbie with
mounts -- just have a Sidewalk Astronomer's-made
wooden 8 inch dob that belongs to the LA Library where
I do star parties -- the library paid for the
Sidewalk Astronomers to build it for us so we could
put on more public astronomy programs at branches
(I work at a branch in boyle Heights, and the public
loves our views of the planets, even though limiting
magnitude in the inner city is under 3).
Thanks much for your help!
Dana Eklund
Montrose, CA