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
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