Celestron CG-4 Manual German Equatorial Mount with Steel Tripod

Good, reasonable balance between portability and stability from a reputable company

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.

This thing is heavy (~26lb) & very stable so it works very well for observing. It was on sale, $70 off, or I prolly wouldn't have bought it. I figured out I could use 2 dovetails & swap out my refractor & my Dob so it is a 'quick change' mount. I'm ill, on disability so I haven't been able to use it as much as I'd like. The few times I used it I got very steady, stable viewing, which is what I wanted it for. So nice to see Saturn rock steady in the eyepiece & turn the slo-mo knob to keep it in view. I hope to scope Orion soon, weather permitting & I want to try some DSOs. I'm happy w/ this mount. Astronomy gear is usually high-dollar, like its 'carriage trade' or only for those wealthy enough. If you can afford it I recommend the Celestron CG-4 mount.

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 .

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.

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 :)

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've owned this mount for about 3 or 4 years now and have found it to be a fine mount. There is a bit of periodic error that becomes evident at high magnifications (observed as a slow oscillation back and forth of the image), but I've only noticed it while observing the Moon at magnifications greater than 300x. I've added the polar scope and Celestron motors to mine and this makes the mount suitable for imaging with light scopes (usually a 127mm MAK for planets or a C6 with focal reducer on deep sky). Careful polar alignment using the polar scope alone will usually give me decent results for exposures up to 60 seconds...on rare occasions I've been able to run that up to about 3 minutes (when by chance every thing gets aligned just right :-) ). What I like best about this mount is that it's fairly light compared to many EQ mounts yet is solid.