Celestron VX mount

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.

Does the VX have this issue? That will be a huge plus for the VX if it has fixed that issue. Anyone got a better solution for the CG-5?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Page 13(Fig 2-15)of the CG-5 manual clearly shows the rounded part of the lever touching the head. On mine it has worn a nice little groove in the mount and I suspect it is affecting my tracking.

The manual can be found here.

http://www.celestron...mount9151791...

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

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

Correct, there was no polar scope in the box. The mount looks designed to accept one with caps that come off both sides to allow you to look through the mount and line up Polaris. I don't anticipate ever needing a polar scope, but if you do then you'll have to pick one up separately.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

Are you doing visual or imaging?

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.

Are you doing visual or imaging?

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.

It never occurred to me that people would be so interested in a load of cardboard boxes

Here's what I've managed to get it to do:
About 90 minutes of 5 minute exposures ATK383L+ Ha filter Oynx 80 EDF scope.

Chris

Chris, this is wonderful! Very promising. Is this with PEC + guiding or just the guiding ?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Guided. It's so easy to set up guiding and I get so few good evenings that I haven't had the nerve to try it with PEC unguided.

When I was checking PEC it seemed to give an unguided RMS error of +- 2.6 arc secs, If I'd thought about it I could have had one scope of the SBS system checking the shift and the other imaging.

Chris

Celestron!

I just want to point out that this thread now has 17 pages of posts where just about every post has something positive to say about the product and pleasant exchanges of information related to the product.

Hey Meade? I know you have no reason to be in this thread but if by chance you are...

THIS is how you launch a product!

FYI, using the fitted foam from the original packing box is an almost perfect fit in a Pelican 1560, rolling case

Folks;
Received an email from High Point Scientific early this evening the VX mount along with an 8EdgeHD will be delivered tomorrow. Really excited, but understand the reality of learning astrophotography w/my Canon 4Ti.
Look forward to a Great Education!
Take Care All-Jerry

Ok so my 12"LX200 fried out and I am going to fulfill a lifelong dream of going Celestron. I would have but I got the LX fully loaded for 1200 bucks.. couldnt say no. I am thinking of going with the AT6RC with my WO ZS II 80ED, Nikon D5100, TV .8 FF/FR and an Orion SSAG. I want to get a nicer Astrograph to go deeper but the guy at starizona said with the resolution of my camera I can go deep and just crop it. My camera with the FF/FR and AT6RC would be .91"/pixel and .73"/pixel at its native F/9. Any other recommendations? Also... Is this VX the mount for me? I have an observatory but want to be able to move.. the CGEM I can move but this will be easier to. Basically my question is more straight forward than most.. for someone who is **** about polar alignment (i drift align for 6 minutes normally)... will this mount perform like a CGEM. The Celestron tech guy said it is capable of being better than the CGEM just has a smaller load capacity. I want to do 5-10 min exposures which seem reasonable with this mount but what is the software precision? The usual 24 bit .08? Will I regret not getting the CGEM? I love all these celestron users.. meades support sucked for the most part. thanks guys keep it up

Capable of being better than CGEM?
In tracking i suppose..?

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.

That is what I had to do. I think I am just going to get an Alan wrench for it so I don't have to worry about losing the screw which I did several times last night in the midst of some testing.

Ok so my 12"LX200 fried out and I am going to fulfill a lifelong dream of going Celestron. I would have but I got the LX fully loaded for 1200 bucks.. couldnt say no. I am thinking of going with the AT6RC with my WO ZS II 80ED, Nikon D5100, TV .8 FF/FR and an Orion SSAG. I want to get a nicer Astrograph to go deeper but the guy at starizona said with the resolution of my camera I can go deep and just crop it. My camera with the FF/FR and AT6RC would be .91"/pixel and .73"/pixel at its native F/9. Any other recommendations? Also... Is this VX the mount for me? I have an observatory but want to be able to move.. the CGEM I can move but this will be easier to. Basically my question is more straight forward than most.. for someone who is **** about polar alignment (i drift align for 6 minutes normally)... will this mount perform like a CGEM. The Celestron tech guy said it is capable of being better than the CGEM just has a smaller load capacity. I want to do 5-10 min exposures which seem reasonable with this mount but what is the software precision? The usual 24 bit .08? Will I regret not getting the CGEM? I love all these celestron users.. meades support sucked for the most part. thanks guys keep it up

If you guide then it should be capable of doing whatever exposures you desire. If you don't guide then you better be really good at Polar aligning, setting up the balance, and not touching your mount/telescope at all.

I want to do 5-10 min exposures which seem reasonable with this mount but what is the software precision? The usual 24 bit .08?

You can do 5 - 10 minute exposures, but you will most assuredly have to guide, as you will with anything south of AP's top-end mounts. Not sure what you are talking about with "software pecision." That has no effect on guiding or go-to.

I think it's rubbing your DEC motor housing rather than the body of the mount, proper.

Take a Dremel tool and remove material from the plastic motor cover where the two contact, and your problem should be solved.

Regards,

Jim