It's time for a new mount. I'm looking at the Orion Atlas, and the Celestron CGEM. Soliciting comments from owners/users of both. Thanks!
I guess it depends on the weight load your looking for. Atlas is rated for a bit over 40lbs I think. The CGEM pro is up to 90 I think? I have the atlas and have had to do a lot of work to it to get it to perform right. Im sure owners of the CGEM might say the same but I dont know for sure. The atlas is notorious for having a very bad rattling noise come out of the idle gear on the motor housing. It really doesn't sound good. Different people have done different modifications to fix this. I added some small teflon washers to mine. The worm bearings the atlas comes with are less than exceptional, I replaced mine with higher quality ceramic ones. The polar adjustment setup is a joke as well...the screws used to change the altitude settings often get bent out of shape because it is all under designed. The worm and gear adjustments most say they have to adjust for being off...along with the spacing adjustments. Also, most replace all of the grease. I only know about the atlas as I own one, can't speak much for the CGEM. The atlas was working fine out of box for smaller scopes, I had to do a lot of work to it to make it perform with a 10" ota on it. I will say, the EQMOD for it is pretty awesome tho. You dont need the hand controller to run it. You can use the eqmod, and starry night to get your goto's ect. Hope that is some useful info. Cheers David Chuck Hards wrote:
It's time for a new mount. I'm looking at the Orion Atlas, and the Celestron CGEM. Soliciting comments from owners/users of both.
Thanks! _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Hi Chuck My experience w/ the Celestrom CGE mount is a good one and I would expect the newer CGEM would be on the same level. All inputs are thru the hand paddle, easy to follow and once aligned (drift alignment recommended), the drive will place objects near the center of the FOV. GOTO is accurate, the drive is quiet and has been a joy to use. If you have any questions, contact Kevin Kawai at Celestron KKAWAI@celestron.com. ENJOY your new mount!! Aloha Rob
For visual use only I have found the predecessor to the CGEM, the CGE, to be a good mount with very accurate pointing even if you are not precisely polar aligned (you need to input 2 alignment and three calibration stars). Both the Orion and Celestron mounts at least in the $1400 price range leave something to be desired for imaging without significant modifications as David Rankin and others have pointed out. The higher end Vixen and the Losmandy mounts are much better. If your budget allows it the MACH1GTO from Astrophysics with 45 lb. capacity is far superior and weighs less. -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 10:37 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Atlas or CGEM? It's time for a new mount. I'm looking at the Orion Atlas, and the Celestron CGEM. Soliciting comments from owners/users of both. Thanks! _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Thanks Don, but AP, Vixen, Losmandy, etc., are beyond the budget...with this wife, anyway. I've got 2 grand carefully and secretly set-aside, and that includes appurtenances. On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Don J. Colton <djcolton@piol.com> wrote:
The higher end Vixen and the Losmandy mounts are much better. If your budget allows it the MACH1GTO from Astrophysics with 45 lb. capacity is far superior and weighs less.
Chuck, One more thing. If you get an Atlas, I would not get one new from Orion. I have seen some Killer deals on the cloudy nights classifieds. Ive seen people upgrading and selling fully hypertuned atlas mounts for around $900.00. http://www.cloudynights.com/classifieds/showcat.php?cat=21 Cheers David
Oh, man, that's a killer deal, but it means having to keep close tabs on the ads... my Achilles heel is not having enough time to spend on-line. I need to pay someone to do it for me, lol. On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:48 PM, David Rankin <David@rankinstudio.com>wrote:
Chuck,
One more thing. If you get an Atlas, I would not get one new from Orion. I have seen some Killer deals on the cloudy nights classifieds. Ive seen people upgrading and selling fully hypertuned atlas mounts for around $900.00.
Yea, one drawback is it may be a while before one comes up. Its a bummer that Orion is forcing you to buy the atlas with the GPS hand controller now. I paid 1100.00 for mine brand new without the gps hand controller, and now you cant get them under 1399.00. The eqmod replaces the hand controller. Anyway, good luck. :) David Chuck Hards wrote:
Oh, man, that's a killer deal, but it means having to keep close tabs on the ads... my Achilles heel is not having enough time to spend on-line.
I need to pay someone to do it for me, lol.
On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 12:48 PM, David Rankin <David@rankinstudio.com>wrote:
Chuck,
One more thing. If you get an Atlas, I would not get one new from Orion. I have seen some Killer deals on the cloudy nights classifieds. Ive seen people upgrading and selling fully hypertuned atlas mounts for around $900.00.
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participants (4)
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Chuck Hards -
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Don J. Colton -
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