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I think it really affects the tracking when you get close to the limits of these lower end mounts with imaging scopes and equipment.

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All I can say is I've never had a problem visually with a C11/binoviewer and all the fixins on the CG5 despite balancing in "casual" fashion.

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I think it really affects the tracking when you get close to the limits of these lower end mounts with imaging scopes and equipment.

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All I can say is I've never had a problem visually with a C11/binoviewer and all the fixins on the CG5 despite balancing in "casual" fashion.

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Well. Like you said these things are only important for imaging. I am sure that most people buy this mount for observing. However, some of us also would like to see if when pushed to its limits it can do ok for imaging. It sure would be nice to use an $800 mount instead of a $1400+ mount for imaging. Even better if it can be done without guiding as well.

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seems like quite a few of these mounts are getting set up and used but very few pictures of users setups are getting posted

how 'bout some pics

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I get severe rubbing on my CG-5 where the locking levers rub against the mount head. I have to take the locking lever off after I lock it down.

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I get severe rubbing on my CG-5 where the locking levers rub against the mount head. I have to take the locking lever off after I lock it down.

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You know you can just change the position of that lever to stop this from happening.

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On my mount it is the round part that is scraping on the head not the lever part. There appears to be nothing that I can do except for removing the lever all-together. Sorry I don't have a picture to show this right now. I will take one tonight though.

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Thanks for sharing Ben. No polar scope in your box correct?

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I get severe rubbing on my CG-5 where the locking levers rub against the mount head. I have to take the locking lever off after I lock it down.

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You know you can just change the position of that lever to stop this from happening.

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On my mount it is the round part that is scraping on the head not the lever part. There appears to be nothing that I can do except for removing the lever all-together. Sorry I don't have a picture to show this right now. I will take one tonight though.

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You can also pull the threaded rod out, carefully cut a little off, clean it up nice and put it back in. Worked for me and was an easy fix.

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I get severe rubbing on my CG-5 where the locking levers rub against the mount head. I have to take the locking lever off after I lock it down.

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You know you can just change the position of that lever to stop this from happening.

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On my mount it is the round part that is scraping on the head not the lever part. There appears to be nothing that I can do except for removing the lever all-together. Sorry I don't have a picture to show this right now. I will take one tonight though.

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You can also pull the threaded rod out, carefully cut a little off, clean it up nice and put it back in. Worked for me and was an easy fix.

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Are we talking about the same component? I am talking about the black locking levers to lock the head. Are you talking about the silver locking levers to lock the mount during Polar alignment? Both have rubbing issues. The big difference is that the black head levers will always have an issue. The silver levers only have an issue in certain portions of the world.

The ones I am talking about are the only ones visible in diagram 2-15 on page 13 of the manual I linked to above.

Edited by mpgxsvcd (02/06/13 03:14 PM)

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Ben,
will you then polar align from the VX manual or do you prefer a Different method? Thanks.

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Ben,
will you then polar align from the VX manual or do you prefer a Different method? Thanks.

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Polaris is not readily visible from my observing location, so I just set the correct latitude and use a compass to orient the mount towards north. From there I plan to do the 2 star alignment procedure from the manual, add at least 3 calibration stars after that, then do the all-star polar alignment routine.

Last night I was only able to do the 2 star alignment plus one calibration star and got great results despite never seeing Polaris or using the all-star routine to fine-tune altitude and azimuth adjustments.

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Are you doing visual or imaging?

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Polaris is not readily visible from my observing location, so I just set the correct latitude and use a compass to orient the mount towards north. From there I plan to do the 2 star alignment procedure from the manual, add at least 3 calibration stars after that, then do the all-star polar alignment routine.

Last night I was only able to do the 2 star alignment plus one calibration star and got great results despite never seeing Polaris or using the all-star routine to fine-tune altitude and azimuth adjustments.

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Are you doing visual or imaging?

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Well I've only used the mount once and it was very cloudy so mostly visual. I did take a 2 minute long video of Jupiter with 1400 frames through my Logitech Quickcam 4000 at prime focus (480mm) and only had 1-2 pixels of movement difference between the first and last frames.

If tonight will cooperate I'll try the video again with a 3x barlow for 1440mm focal length which will be closer to the average telescope's focal length.

I haven't decided between a used DSLR or entry level CCD like the Atik Titan so the webcam and a piggyback Sony RX100 point-and-shoot are all the imaging I can do for now.

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I get severe rubbing on my CG-5 where the locking levers rub against the mount head. I have to take the locking lever off after I lock it down.

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You know you can just change the position of that lever to stop this from happening.

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On my mount it is the round part that is scraping on the head not the lever part. There appears to be nothing that I can do except for removing the lever all-together. Sorry I don't have a picture to show this right now. I will take one tonight though.

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You can also pull the threaded rod out, carefully cut a little off, clean it up nice and put it back in. Worked for me and was an easy fix.

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Are we talking about the same component? I am talking about the black locking levers to lock the head. Are you talking about the silver locking levers to lock the mount during Polar alignment? Both have rubbing issues. The big difference is that the black head levers will always have an issue. The silver levers only have an issue in certain portions of the world.

The ones I am talking about are the only ones visible in diagram 2-15 on page 13 of the manual I linked to above.

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My mistake, I thought you were referring to the silver elevation lock knobs.
Regarding the axis lock knobs, you could take the set screw out of the knob and just take the knob off the mount when you are done aligning. You would have to take care not to lose it , but it would buy you the extra room you need.

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