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[Justin Fuller]

I've got a circa 2004 Celestron CGE equatorial mount, purchased used, but used only a handful of times before it got into my hands, and used only about twenty times by me. It's loaded with a C14,which I'm aware is pushing the mount to the limit, but the setup has been great in my opinion for visual use at least. I've got a Nexdome on the way, ETA July. Before the dome arrives and the C14/CGE combo go in for what will probably be about five years before I upgrade to a more substantial mount on pier, I'd like to give the CGE a proper maintenance cycle, given it's age, and specifically tune it to handle the C14. I've contacted Celestron asking if they have any publicly available data on CGE schematics, maintenance checklists, etc. and they do not, not surprising given the mounts age now. I've gleaned a couple bits of info scattered among various posts on CN,on the CGE, but much of it is somewhat vague. This Summer, I'll be tackling the project of creating a complete tear down, tune up and rebuild guide for the CGE, à la Haynes manual for automobiles, with pictures and step by step instructions. I'll start by getting a baseline of the mounts performance now before taking it apart, starting early-mid May. I figured others may be interested in this information, so I'll be updating this thread as the project progresses and then will release the full manual when I'm done via a CN article. If something like this has been done before, please direct me to it! If there has I can't seem to find it. If you've done a similar thing, or are an expert on a particular part of the CGE after fixing it yourself, please share that experience here. I'll be sure to credit anyone that provides insight. Thanks in advance to anyone that would like to contribute.