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The CGE holds 65 pounds and is made in the USA. The Sphinx holds 33 pounds and while I'm not positive, I'm pretty sure it's made in China. So it's roughly equivalent to the $1500 HEQ6/Atlas EQ-G mount.
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Just to set the record straight, the Vixen Sphinx mounts (SXW & SXD) are made in Japan. I recently saw a new Vixen HAL-130 tripod that was marked made in China, but the mount itself is Japanese.

The O.P. was considering a CGEM mount which is made in China by Synta and is mechanically similar to the HEQ6/Atlas EQ-G mounts. The CGE and CGE Pro mounts are made in the U.S., but are much heavier and more expensive than the mounts being considered by the O.P.

I used a Vixen Sphinx mount for a short while while waiting for my CG-5 ASGT to be repaired. The Starbook is certainly more advanced in design than the Celestron hand controller: e.g., it uses an Ethernet network port for updates rather than the slow and outdated RS-232 serial port used by the Celestron. Installing the newest firmware allows the LCD screen to be set dimmer as compared to the original firmware, but a color LCD screen can be a problem in terms of night vision in very dark locations. I found the gotos somewhat more accurate with my CG-5 (when it worked) as compared to the Vixen, but the difference was not dramatic. Certainly the mechanical build quality of the Vixen was superior to the Chinese-made mounts.

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Sky conditions in San Diego, California:



Vixen VMC200L 8" corrected Cassegrain telescope on a Celestron CG-5 Advanced Series GT mount
Pentax eyepieces and Televue eyepieces & diagonal
Fujinon 16x70 Binoculars on a Manfrotto 028B/501HDV tripod
Celestron SkyScout
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Avatar: Gemini North on Mauna Kea, November, 2008.

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As for as the folks who really have a hunger to view all 64k objects in the Meade db, or want/need certain features, or have an interest in AP, then yeah, the Starbook is gonna disappoint...

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