Heavy-Duty Belt Transfer

A lot of mounts today use spur gears to transfer rotational motion from the motors to the worm wheels. The problem with spur gears is that there is an internment amount play between the teeth of the gears. This play introduces mechanical backlash and thus hinders tracking performance, especially when autoguiding. By using a belt transfer, backlash virtually disappears and tracking accuracy is greatly improved.

Internal Cabling

Cable management can get messy. Where some telescope mounts can get caught on their own cables and ruin a night of observing, the CGX avoids this entirely. The cables that connect the RA and Declination motor to the motor control are all wired inside of the mount.

Directly connect the mount to a computer with its USB 2.0 B-type located on the rear.

Mechanical Hard Stops

The mechanical hard stop will prevent injury to you and/or your telescope. You will never have to worry about having your optical tube running into your tripod legs or swinging into the mount because of a loose clutch.

Homing Sensors

Homing sensors in a mount is an awesome feature to have in an observatory setting. If power is lost throughout the night, you can "home" the mount and re-sync on the home position rather than creating an entirely new pointing model.

It also makes a great position to park the telescope after a night of imaging. The next night you want to observe, turn the mount on and sync.

Dual Dovetail Saddle

Swapping telescopes is now a breeze! Smaller telescopes often use the lighter less expensive V-style dovetail bar and the Larger telescope is often equipped with the wider Losmandy style dovetail bar for its sturdiness. The new Saddle on this mount clamps down on both types of dovetails.

The knobs also on this saddle have been improved to allow you to really torque down on a dovetail bar without the use of special tools.

Improved Tripod

The Celestron tripod was completely redesigned. It has a wider stance that keeps a lower center of gravity to reduce vibrations. Each Leg has line-height markings which makes it quick and easy to set your tripod to the right height.

The accessory tray has been redesigned as well. It was reshaped so it can now remain attached when the tripod is folded up. The tray now holds three 1.25-inch eyepieces, one 2-inch eyepiece, and one smartphone.

Ergonomic Carry Handles

Just look at that picture! Why can't every mount be that easy to carry? These handles really speed-up the setup and breakdown times for an astronomer who is on the go. No longer will you have to awkwardly lug around the mount head or have trouble centering it over the top of the tripod.

All New Altitude Adjuster

Other EQ mounts, including the CGX's predecessor, the CGEM, are difficult and uncomfortable to polar align when a mounted telescope is mounted to it. Taking the telescope off the mount would be easier, but would give you a very inaccurate polar alignment once you put an OTA on it. Celestron addressed this by using an armature that rides on ACME threaded rod. This allows you to easily adjust the mount with one hand under load!

Celestron PWI Telescope Control Software

Celestron and PlaneWave Instruments have teamed up to develop a complete planetarium/mount control software. This program unleashes the full pointing accuracy potential of the CGX.

PlaneWave employs PointXP mount modeling, which accepts numerous star alignment points for the best possible accuracy. PointXP (also used in the StarSense AutoAlign accessory) goes beyond the pointing capability of traditional hand control. By adding multiple star alignment points, PWI accounts for various types of alignment errors, including instrument flexure.

With a direct USB connection from your PC to the USB port on the mount, PWI’s Sky Viewer display makes for easy target selection or finding your favorite deep-sky object in PWI’s extensive object database.