I'm thinking about selling my CGX

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AstroBee United States of America
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I'm thinking about selling my CGX

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Post by AstroBee »


This mount has been very good to me for the past several years. I was an early adopter and received mine only a month or two after it went on sale. It worked fine for me until the pandemic hit and I had lots of free time to get out under dark skies and do some imaging. It quickly went south with my regular guiding that was around .60-.75" Total RMS going all the way up to 1.5-2.0" RMS. Obviously I had a problem... So last summer I shipped it back to Celestron and they did indeed determine the belts had been too tight (I never adjusted them) and the bushing on the motors had been deformed. To Celestron's credit, they repaired it as though it was under warranty. All I paid for was the shipping one way to them. Once again my guiding was back to "normal" and sometimes even better than normal. I spent an entire evening imaging and getting a total RMS in the mid .40's! Even today I have the occasional great night of imaging with an RMS in the mid .50's but now there's a new "issue" with the mount. When it is performing a meridian flip it will sometimes (not all the time) take off and it looks and sounds like the gears are skipping. When it completes the meridian flip and plate-solves it will be anywhere from 3-4 to 10-15 degrees off its target. It's not a huge issue as the plate solve corrects for it but it's still an issue.
The other problem I have is I'm now using a heavier imaging rig and I'm a bit past the recommended 50% payload capacity so I just took possession of an iOptron CEM70EC that I'm very excited about. Not only because of the slightly heavier payload capacity but also because the mount is 8lbs lighter than the CGX. I haven't even had a chance yet to put the CEM70 through its paces yet but if I like it as much as I think I will, there's no point in keeping the CGX.

So knowing what you know now, what do you think would be a fair asking price for the CGX?

I would of course disclose all of the above information to a potential buyer. Honestly, as a visual mount and an imaging rig that is monitored, the mount is just fine. I just wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it unattended when it does the meridian flip which was another reason I decided to get the new mount.
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Greg M.~ "Ad Astra per Aspera"
Scopes: Celestron EdgeHD14", Explore Scientific ED152CF & ED127 APO's, StellarVue SV70T, Classic Orange-Tube C-8, Lunt 80mm Ha double-stack solar scope.
Mounts: Astro-Physics Mach One, iOptron CEM70EC Mount, iOptron ZEQ25 Mount.
Cameras: ZWO ASI2600mm Pro, ZWO 2600MC Pro, ZWO ASI1600mm
Filters: 36mm Chroma LRGB & 3nm Ha, OIII, SII, L-Pro, L-eXtreme
Eyepieces: 27mm TeleVue Panoptic, 4mm TeleVue Radian, Explore Scientific 82° 30mm, 6.7mm , Baader 13mm Hyperion, Explore Scientific 70° 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, Meade 8.8mm UWA
Software: N.I.N.A., SharpCapPro, PixInsight, PhotoShop CC, Phd2, Stellarium
https://www.nevadadesertskies.com
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JayTee United States of America
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Re: I'm thinking about selling my CGX

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Post by JayTee »


Do a comp using CN classifieds and Astro Mart classifieds and then I would ask 50 to 70% of that comp with full disclosure.
∞ Primary Scopes: #1: Celestron CPC1100 #2: 8" f/7.5 Dob #3: CR150HD f/8 6" frac
∞ AP Scopes: #1: TPO 6" f/9 RC #2: ES 102 f/7 APO #3: ES 80mm f/6 APO
∞ G&G Scopes: #1: Meade 102mm f/7.8 #2: Bresser 102mm f/4.5
∞ Guide Scopes: 70 & 80mm fracs -- The El Cheapo Bros.
∞ Mounts: iOptron CEM70AG, SW EQ6, Celestron AVX, SLT & GT (Alt-Az), Meade DS2000
∞ Cameras: #1: ZWO ASI294MC Pro #2: 662MC #3: 120MC, Canon T3i, Orion SSAG, WYZE Cam3
∞ Binos: 10X50,11X70,15X70, 25X100
∞ EPs: ES 2": 21mm 100° & 30mm 82° Pentax XW: 7, 10, 14, & 20mm 70°

Searching the skies since 1966. "I never met a scope I didn't want to keep."

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