Celestron VX mount

Chris,

Thank you for telling us what you can ... it's appreciated.

Good news on the motors/gearbox. I know many CGEM owners will also be watching this aspect of the mount very closely ... and hopefully this will bode well for a proper solution for those folks in the future.

Would it be worth the $ to upgrade? I;m looking at snatching a cg-5 now but, if the other would be better for ap, I'll wait. What's your ,now informed, opinion? I don't want details, or anything like that. You couldn't say anyway, and it's irrelevant. I just want to know if you'd upgrade, or be happy with a CG-5?

Autoguider port (which the CG-5 already has) New motors (which should mean new gearbox and therefore hopefully won't have the 8/3 period errors)

I know this is something of a problem with the CGEM, but I have never seen nor heard tell of it in a CG5... Mr Ed, what say you?

Rod, I agree, CG-5 owners wouldn't know much about this (with no PPEC not many folks have spent much time digging into PE on the CG-5), but much of the hardware is the same between the mounts (CG-5/CGEM) and presumably with new motors and gear boxes the problem won't be inherent in the VX mount ... and this gives hope to the CGEM owners who do have to live with the 8/3 period errors.

Belay my last post. I just ordered the 5! I've been waiting for it to hit that price for a few months anyway. Going to use it mainly for observing, and maybe ap with the 80mm apo, that's about it.

I think that if the AVX is only $100 more expensive than the AS-GT then it's a no brainer - get the AVX. I found it easier to set up and get good guiding.

But the AS-GT hasn't changed, it's no better or worse than it was yesterday and if it's available at a good price then it might worth getting it, especially if you plan to use it with a light short focal length scope.

So the answer is - as usual - it depends :-)

Chris

Seems to me that the new price point for entry level AP will be closer to $800-900 if we look at the pricing range of the LX80 post introduction. So my 2c would be to snatch up the few remaining CG5-AGSTs now. Sure no PEC and gears and what not so as good as the VX, but if you are doing visual or video astronomy, you dont need much better.

Obviously if the new VX works as anticipated this will put pressure on the basic CGEM, why pay $500 more for basically 10 lbs of additional payload?!? So Celestron will canabalize a higher margin product in introducing the VX. If the finance people think about this, it would obviously beg the question that they need to seriously upgrade the CGEM to keep that price point intact.

just my 2c

Al

The new VX is shown on the Celestron site...

http://www.celestron...edvx-mount.html

Stan

Nice info,RTLR! I especially like the 360 view. I didn't notice any mention of ASPA in the specs though, but surely it must have it.

Edit: there is a sign/icon that says allstar polar alignment above the product spec tab. Just didn't see it

Yes, they list ASPA in the description along with PEC< RTC, and some other features. Looks like a CG-5 and a CGEM offspring.

Stan

Wider latitude range... yet it only does 7 to 77 degrees??

Didn't the CG5 go from 0 to 90 degrees? How do you go wider than that? Am I missing something here?

Anyway, it looks like a great mount. I liked my CG5. Hope this new mount isn't as noisy as the old one.

Looks very polished and reasonably priced. Hopefully it has the guts to be a strong performer like its Momma.

George

Is it a Sirius/HEQ-5 derivative?

It sounds like Celestron has a great bundle with this new mount plus a C8 Edge HD OTA for under $2k.

I was considering an 8" Edge HD OTA to experiment with anyway. It sounds almost like I'd be nuts not to hold off a bit and get this mount + OTA bundle.

"The star of the series is the Advanced VX 8” Edge HD, which combines Celestron’s best optical design with the Advanced VX for a stellar astroimaging telescope under $2,000."

Star sense also sounds like a nifty little tool for popularizing and democratizing astronomy. So easy even a caveman can use it to align a GOTO mount.

Regards,

Jim

Is it a Sirius/HEQ-5 derivative?

According to the photos, it's a Vixen-themed mount rather than Tak. Looks like an updated CG-5.

Obviously if the new VX works as anticipated this will put pressure on the basic CGEM, why pay $500 more for basically 10 lbs of additional payload?!?

The mounts are more different than the 30 pound/40 pound specs imply. Bigger gears, bearings, etc. The CGEM minus tripod weighs more than twice the weight published for the bare VX so it's substantially beefier (weighs about the rated capacity, rather than 1/2 the rated capacity). The price difference will still be justified for those wanting something more substantial - but with any luck the VX will be even more bang for the buck than the CG-5 was, and that's saying something!

John, where'd you find photos?

Thanks,

Jim

John, where'd you find photos?

Sorry - Celestron added the mount to their site sometime after this thread started.

So it appears we have lots of good changes with the VX mount compared to the CG-5 ...

Same HC - NexStar+ (very important for compatibility and functionality benefits)
Additional AUX port (good for accessories like SkySync and SkySense - no need for an AUX port extender)
Better alt and az adjustments (nice change for folks in the field who are always changing the positions)
Better motors and gearbox (faster slews and hopefully lower PE)
Smaller motor housings (good for clearance issues)
Mechanically able to track 20° past the meridian (good, less inadvertent meridian flips)
External dec cable (similar to original but appears to be shorter and routed better)
Same counterweight shaft diameter (good for compatibility with original CG-5 CWs)
Shaped 11lb counterweight (good for clearance issues at lower latitudes)
Similar tripod (good for stability)
PEC (good for imagers)
RTC (good - should be able to hibernate and come back without data input)
Better saddle (two bolts and wide spacing will provide more robust clamping and still use same dovetails as on CG-5)
Thread on power connector - like CGEM/CGE Pro (good, will eliminate many intermittent electrical issues)

What I didn't like ...
Tripod leg clamp knobs are still on the outside (cable snagging potential)
Increased amperage requirement (not a big deal but will push folks to the 5 amp CGEM/CGE Pro AC power adapter which is 3x the price of the 2.5 amp model) - and I'll bet the very poor Celestron DC power cable will now become even more of an issue unless it's been upgraded too.

Still to be answered ...
Bearings used on the DEC axis?
How smooth the DEC axis is when autoguiding (and amount of backlash)
PE targets and how smooth the transitions are


So in general there are nice improvements for visual work and big improvements for imagers. For an extra $100 (and actually a bit more since CG-5s are not sold at list) the VX looks like a clear winner.

Wider latitude range... yet it only does 7 to 77 degrees??

Didn't the CG5 go from 0 to 90 degrees? How to you go wider than that? Am I missing something here?

Anyway, it looks like a great mount. I liked my CG5. Hope this new mount isn't as noisy as the old one.

Sigh. Low latitude users like myself needs more love here....

I checked mine, the latitude goes to just under zero degrees.

I've no idea about the bearings and I'm not about to take it apart.

I've not checked the power draw but the PSU is probably sized for the peak loads as the motors start. There are plenty of less expensive sources of power.

My guiding graphs look pretty good to me, peak error of a fraction of a pixel - when there's no cloud in front of the star at least.

The PEC graphs look reasonably smooth and consistent from cycle to cycle to me, with a peak to peak of about 25". I was able to use PECTool with PHD guiding to collect the PEC data.

Chris

How about the noise level at max slew? Any improvement over the CG5GT? The motor covers look a lot better compared to the old 'resonators'.

Wider latitude range... yet it only does 7 to 77 degrees??

Didn't the CG5 go from 0 to 90 degrees? How do you go wider than that? Am I missing something here?

Anyway, it looks like a great mount. I liked my CG5. Hope this new mount isn't as noisy as the old one.

Yep, you are.

The CG5 did not really go from 0 to 90. If you wanted to go below about 30 degrees, you had to remove the front altitude adjustment bolt, which was the first thing I had to do when I got my mount.

Is it a Sirius/HEQ-5 derivative?

I'd have to say "no," since it uses servos. Looks like the offspring of Mama CG5 and Daddy CGEM to me.

Autoguider port (which the CG-5 already has)
New motors (which should mean new gearbox and therefore hopefully won't have the 8/3 period errors)

I know this is something of a problem with the CGEM, but I have never seen nor heard tell of it in a CG5... Mr Ed, what say you?

It is somewhat strange that the 8/3 problem has never (to my knowledge) been reported with the CG-5 that uses the same motors as the CGEM. I don't know of any reports of motor cogging either. The CGEM uses a completely different motor board than the CG-5. The CG-5 board is derived from the same family of boards used by the CGE and Nexstar mounts and that is likely what makes the difference with the cogging. However, in regards to the 8/3 issue, I suspect that the 8/3 error is there with the CG-5 but it is lost in the noise of the mount in general. The improved design, gear quality and stability of the CGEM is likely the reason why the 8/3 error is more apparent since there is no other reason that the CG-5 should not have this error.

Hopefully, they have addressed these potential issues with the new mount.

Is it a Sirius/HEQ-5 derivative?

It sounds like Celestron has a great bundle with this new mount plus a C8 Edge HD OTA for under $2k.

I was considering an 8" Edge HD OTA to experiment with anyway. It sounds almost like I'd be nuts not to hold off a bit and get this mount + OTA bundle.

"The star of the series is the Advanced VX 8” Edge HD, which combines Celestron’s best optical design with the Advanced VX for a stellar astroimaging telescope under $2,000."

Star sense also sounds like a nifty little tool for popularizing and democratizing astronomy. So easy even a caveman can use it to align a GOTO mount.

Regards,

Jim

Definitely not a Sirius/EQ5 derivative. It clearly uses the same general structure as all Vixen GP clone mounts in this catagory. For me, if they added bearings to the DEC axis it will be a winner. Improving the bearings on the RA would be a bonus.

Obviously if the new VX works as anticipated this will put pressure on the basic CGEM, why pay $500 more for basically 10 lbs of additional payload?!?

The mounts are more different than the 30 pound/40 pound specs imply. Bigger gears, bearings, etc. The CGEM minus tripod weighs more than twice the weight published for the bare VX so it's substantially beefier (weighs about the rated capacity, rather than 1/2 the rated capacity). The price difference will still be justified for those wanting something more substantial - but with any luck the VX will be even more bang for the buck than the CG-5 was, and that's saying something!

I agree that this is vastly different from the more robust CGEM design and will only compete with the CGEM as much as the CG-5 does. Its competition will be the Orions, Skywatchers and Vixens with similar configurations.