CG-4 German Equatorial Mount and Tripod

My go-to mount is just too much to get into for quick viewing and moving around the yard to get Northern and Southern views. The CG-4 isn't light but its not too heavy either. Looks just like the Skywatcher EQ-5 but with manual EQ controls. Point the mount towards Polaris, loosen the clutches to find the target and tracking is easy. A decent red dot finder works great. The mount is wonderfully steady with my130 Newt and 120 11kg refractor. Highly recommended. Wish I'd bought it first!

I bought this 11 years ago. Still works great. Tracks as well as is did the day i bought it. Finding the north star and aligning it is quite a challenge, especially in very dark skies... but that's part of the adventure! I've really not had heavy scopes on it, just my camera and a 70-200 lens. I was not expecting how much you can capture with just 200mm camera lens. Love this mount, it's worth every penny, even if pennies are worth less than they were 11 years ago :)

Good solid equatorial mount that is easier to set up and start using than the one arm go-to mount. It handles my 8" Celestron scope just fine. I added the dual-axis motor drive and polar finder with not much problem and it tracks quite well. At least, better than the go-to mount. The gears can be adjusted with a hex key tool to make it easier or harder to turn the hand controls. The quick release levers for RA and DEC work great for moving it around fast. If adding the clock drive you will only be able to turn the declination by hand once clamped down. Of course you can use the buttons then but it is slow. My only complaint is the weight (35lbs) with counter-weights plus (15lbs) for the scope. I have to put it together in 3 trips. It all goes together quite easily anyway. The built in level makes it easy, just point the leg with the N on it at the north star and adjust your latitude to get a fairly accurate track. A polar scope will make it even more accurate.

Never cared for equatorial mounts during my five decades in this hobby, but I needed something sturdy enough to hold my new 4" F/7 refractor. After looking at the competition's Alt-Az mounts, and reading that they may be stretched to their weight limits with this scope, I opted for this CG-4, which had a slightly higher load rating. Fit and finish is perfect, and the movements are smooth with no slop. The inner workings appear to be well-machined and tight. It handles the weight of the 4" refractor (equipped with a 2" diagonal, Baader Zoom eyepiece, and 8x50 finderscope, and 7 lb counterweight) as if it were specifically built for this setup. Smooth, steady, solid, yet light enough I can carry the assembled setup around the yard when necessary. I don't actually use the setting circles as they are too small for my taste. but I do roughly align the mount with Polaris when using it. Close enough for tracking purposes. I starhop to my target using a paper charts, then tighten the clutches and use the slow-motion cables to track as long as I want. The only negative I can say is that you cannot 'lay down' this mount to use in an alt-azimuth mode, which is what I'd originally planned to do. But after using it in EQ mode, I really have no qualms about that. Well-made, delivers as advertised, and I look forward to years of service using this mount. Darn near perfect for what I need it for.

I am using this for <8 lb scopes and it moves the scope smoothly and easily. Tripod is sturdy, mount is solid and silky smooth. I had a lower quality mount for 6-8 lb scopes and the mount bearings eventually wore out. This is heavy to carry around (for small light scopes) but worth it since tracking is reliable. It's rated up to 15 lbs and people claim success with up to 20 lbs. A weakness is precision of the setting circles, but for the price and intended level of use it's more than adequate. After using cheaper ($100-200) mounts I'm impressed with the quality of machining. Not only are the bearings smooth but the fittings (counterweights and connection of tripod to mount) couple smoothly and stay put when set up.

This is one of in class. Many companies using this basic mount to put their logo and motors to make auto GOTO. You can find upgrade : V4 EXOS2 Onstep EXOS2 Equatorial Mount V4 GOTO Upgrade Kit Biaxial Tracking6nVm and save good few hundreds $$$ on it. Solid build. I received my with minor defect but Adorama fixed it in no time .

This is my first equatorial tripod. I got it a few weeks back to get the annular solar eclipse, and after I figured out a few important basics, I was easily able to capture the eclipse on my video camera. I am excited today, because it is the last transit of Venus that will occur in our life times. I have the camera trained on the sun, mounted to this tripod outside my window. It looks beautiful. I have the added the 93522 dual axis motor mount to track the rotation of the earth and I have the CG5 universal mounting plate to attach my camera. On the camera itself I have a telephoto lens, and a ND 3.0 1000x filter, and I'm shooting at 1/8000s with f/9.6. You can easily see sun spots in fair detail and if the eclipse is any indication, the final video will come out very nice. The motor mounts are a necessity for an equatorially mounted tripod, and once all the said and done, this setup is a fraction of the cost of many other equatorial mounts, and it is very well built. Next, I intend to get a nice telescope to mount on it and get some star gazing done. Back to check on the transit...