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The heavy duty CG-5A Advanced Series computerized German equatorial mount has built-in DC-powered dual-axis worm gear drive slewing/tracking motors. The maximum slewing speed in both right ascension and declination is specified at a fast 4° per second. Snap-on covers keep the motor drives free from dust and debris.
    The mount is supplied with a car battery cord to operate from the cigarette lighter plug of your car or from a rechargeable 12V battery pack. The 7 amp hour capacity Celestron Power Tank #4512V is recommended and will operate the scope all night long without danger of running out of power.
    Manual slow motion controls in both right ascension and declination are standard equipment. To make a casual polar alignment for visual use quick and easy, there’s a latitude scale and fine adjustment controls in both altitude and azimuth. If astrophotography is in your plans, an optional polar finder is available to increase the accuracy of your alignment.
    The mount’s tripod has 2” diameter steel legs, with excellent damping characteristics. There’s a center leg brace for rigidity. The brace is drilled to form a convenient accessory tray that holds both 1.25" and 2" eyepieces to keep them up out of the dew-soaked grass. A review in Sky & Telescope magazine said, “When the mount was fitted with a short-tube 90-millimeter refractor, vibrations damped out in just 1 to 1½ seconds after I gave a sharp rap to the tube. When I placed vibration-suppression pads (a Celestron option) under each leg, the damping time was cut in half. This is performance as good as by any mount I’ve seen at any price.”
    One or more counterweights are supplied, depending of the weight of the optical tube. The sliding counterweight(s) are locked in place with a single hand-tighten thumbscrew each, making it easy to rebalance the scope if you add heavy accessories. The mount is easily capable of handling the scope and any reasonable combination of accessories you might want to add. If needed, an optional 11 lb. counterweight (#1711) is available to balance very heavy loads.
    An adjustable dovetail slide bar allows the optical tube to be quickly and precisely balanced fore and aft on the mount, eliminating the need for an extra counterweight to balance a camera or other accessories. Setup and takedown times are exceptionally fast, as a single large hand-tighten knob holds the optical tube in place. A second lock knob prevents the tube from sliding off the mount should the hand-tighten knob loosen.
    Periodic drive speed errors are a problem with all worm gear telescope drives, no matter what size the telescope or what its cost. It may be noticeable in the Advanced Series mount during long exposure astrophotography, due to the relatively small size of the drive gears. Since periodic error correction is not available, successful deep space photography requires careful manual guiding in such cases. Lunar and planetary exposures are all very short, so guiding is not required during this type of photography. Visual observing is not affected by periodic drive errors.
    There are positioning encoders on each axis for go-to computer control using the supplied NexStar computer hand control. The mount has setting circles for manually locating objects by their celestial coordinates alone, should you want to observe the old-fashioned way.
    The review in Sky & Telescope magazine concluded, “The Advanced Series CG-5 mount is an ideal platform for a 3- to 5-inch refractor, a 4- to 6-inch Newtonian reflector or Maksutov-Cassegrain, or a 5- to 9¼-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain. The smaller, shorter, and lighter the optical tube assembly, the sturdier the combination will be. When mated to a 4-inch short focus refractor or a compact 5-ince Maksutov or Schmidt-Cassegrain, the Advanced Series mount forms an amazingly solid platform that is virtually insensitive to vibration. Yet the complete package is light enough to be carried outside fully assembled.
    “The Advanced Series’ strength is serving as a mount for a telescope used visually and for snapshots or webcam imaging of the Moon and planets . . . for an affordable customized telescope with Go To capability the Celestron Advanced Series mount is a great choice.”

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