Celestron CGE-Pro Motorized Equatorial Telescope Mount

Celestron's best mount for professional results in imaging and observing, the Celestron CGE-Pro Motorized Equatorial Telescope Mount is designed for Celestron and other maker's 14" catadioptric scopes, loaded to the gills with imaging and/or visual accessories.  It provides easy polar alignment, extreme tracking accuracy, and shake-free observing/imaging at any practical magnification.

The heart of the CGE-Pro's flagship performance is the guts of the mount itself, oversized R.A. and declination shafts separated from their 6" brass worm gearing via beefy ball bearings.  To make a mount that doesn't flinch when loaded up to the max, you start with strong materials and make them large-a mount should be sturdy, first and foremost, and the CGE-Pro certainly delivers.  And when you need to slew to an attraction halfway across the sky, the CGE-Pro's massive power runs along at 5.5° per second.

Beyond the brawn of the CGE-Pro, the ergonomics, tracking accuracy, and ease of alignment display its brains.  The mount's periodic error in movement (inherent to all geared equatorials) is amongst the best you'll ever see, and gets even better with some surveyed use of the mount to further hone in upon its natural gearing variance.  A large latitude scale along the polar axis makes alignment as easy as possible, and you can spring for the optional GPS accessory which will sense your exact time and location (within ~10'/3 m) and take you to a pair of alignment stars for you to easily center in the view of the eyepiece.

Celestron uses the larger-class CGE (aka Losmandy-D) style dovetail mounting plate on the CGE-Pro, which allows precise declination alignment to minimize counterweighting and wear upon the mount.  All knobs and controls are captive and easily distinguished from one another in the darkness merely by touch, and all the electronics operated by the user ride in a built-in pier to ease clearance and access.

The CGE-Pro arrives with their very best "Super HD" tripod, made from cold-rolled carbon steel and able to reach a height of 55" (1.4 m), the Super HD uses a dual leg support for maximum rigidity with an upper leg brace to provide an outward preload and a lower leg brace for inward tension.

The total weight of the mount, tripod and included counterweight is 154 pounds, with the heaviest chunk being 75 pounds.

The CGE-Pro arrives with a vehicle cigarette lighter adapter as its power supply, but you can also choose their optional AC adapter.  For simplicity and all-night operation in the field, choose Celestron's optional Power Tank, which directly accepts the car battery adapter.