Celestron CGEM II Computerized German Type Motorized Equatorial Mount with Tripod

it keeps losing Wi-Fi so I cant used my phone or table to run it my old avx mount didn't loss Wi-Fi looking at a CGX or CGX-L mount Read more

I upgraded from an AVX mount so I was used to the Celestron way of designing these lower cost mounts. The CGEM ii is heavier, stronger and quieter. It seems to be smoother but I haven't a way of measuring. The promo boasts of the knobs. I didn't like them and replaced them all. For an example, the lower (Azimuth) knobs stuck out too far, way too far or I would have left them alone. And there was dark gunk on the threads. I bought some cheap knobs from China and the threads seamed tight so I ran a die over them. Ah ha! Dark gunk. So now I had knobs that fit and also knew the source of the gunk. China had zinc plated the bolts making them slightly over size. BTW, there is no need for such large grips on these two knobs. They are only locating against the alignment pin and not requiring loads of torque. The index points were a bit off. Easily noticeable to me anyway. Easy enough to adjust. The tripod is the same construction as the AVX with small changes to the fit of the mount. It is no sturdier. I built my own pier for rigidity and am very pleased with the improvement. I will still use the tripod for other locations. One beef I have with both of my Celestron mounts is that they don't come with enough counter weights to meet the load specification. In my case, the 11" tube and a couple of accessories weighs about 28 pounds. 24 pounds of counterweights were needed to balance it. The CGEMii comes with a 17 pound counter weight. They should tell you that you need to buy more counter weights to cover your load. The biggest flaw is in locking the scope's starting position. When tightening the latitude knobs, the desired position shifts quite a lot. It's squishy, hard to anticipate and doesn't seem to hold well. (If I can make it work better I'll update this review and rating.) This feature on the AVX worked better. Read more

I read so many mediocre reviews of this mount here on Amazon and on other sites that I was very nervous about buying it. But it was the best bang for the buck and with my budget being rather inflexible, I decided to go for it. Boy am I glad I did! Do not listen to the perfectionist reviewers trying to compare this mount to professional installations costing tens of thousands of dollars. This is a high-end consumer mount with great features, easy to use, accurate tracking, and simply awesome performance. I could not visually detect a hint of image motion even with my 8mm ocular looking through my 8" C8. The set-up takes a little practice, but its worth the time. ADVICE: Plan your first 2 evenings around just learning this mount. There is nothing wrong with that and its well worth the effort! Would I buy this mount again? YES I WOULD!!! Read more

It is horrible for astro photography, please stay way from this mount Read more

I don't think I gave this mount enough time or credit. Yes I returned it, i thought that for the $$ it would be tracking batter and guiding better out of the box. I seems very hit/miss with these mounts as many say they are great, others ok and have to work through the kinks with them. I wanted a mount that was pretty much do what i wanted to do out of the box and no tinkering. Read more