Celestron Advanced VX Computerized Mount International

I bought my AVX off Amazon and deliberately selected SkiesUnlimited as the vendor (primarily because it's as close to a local business as I can get, without sales tax). I received the single, large box literally next day. Wow!I was initially a bit concerned the box said "2 of 2" and contacted Bob at SkiesUnlimited to make sure there really wasn't a missing "1 of 2", but he assured me box 2 included just the mount and everything mount-related.I unpacked it all and examined each component. The hand controller was roughly-packaged and looked, well, "used". The display was scuffed and it had a crack in it. I contacted Bob again to see what my options were and he suggested first trying to see if Celestron would ship me a free replacement under warranty. Sounded reasonable enough, but Celestron informed me it was the dealer's issue to resolve. At this point, SKiesUnlimited happily shipped me a new hand controller.in the meantime, I assembled everything, adding my William Optics GT81 to the saddle. Preliminary, indoor tests showed the mount booting properly, then moving to approximately the right areas of the sky for alignment stars. Now to wait for usable skies!The day after the replacement hand controller arrived, the skies were clear. It was a little on the windy side, but the total weight of the mount assured me it shouldn't be easily blown-over on my back patio.I carried everything out (tripod with equatorial head, OTA, counterweight) and completed final assembly under the stars. This also meant I could point the mount roughly north, too.With the equatorial head adjusted for latitude and the RA & Dec alignment marks registered properly, the OTA was indeed pointing at roughly the celestial pole. I then moved the mount itself just a little until Polaris appeared offset by the right amount and approximate direction from the true pole in the ample FOV. The mount's fine-adjustment in azimuth was a cinch for fine-tuning.Then it was time for the 2-star alignment. It picked Vega and Altair andI centered each in turn, not really requiring much of a tweak for Vega and even less for Altair.Time to test the basic goto functionality. M57 was my first target - put it right in the field of view, not far from the middle. I swapped out the eyepiece for my ZWO ASI174MM camera and refocused. M57 was still on the chip, so I centered it more finely. I tried a couple more goto targets - M27 - right on the chip. NGC7331 - right on the chip. M15 - right on the chip. I was quite honestly very impressed with the goto accuracy over such large swathes of sky and with minimal setup.Content with rough gotos, I proceeded to see how responsive the mount was to autoguiding.I plugged in the autoguider cable between my cam (the ASI174MM) and the AVX mount. This, unfortunately, caused the mount to "reboot", losing the alignment information. Grrrrr.So I quickly repeated the alignment (Vega and Altair, again), then fired up PHD2.I moved a couple degrees away from Altair and started the PHD2 calibration on a sixth or seventh magnitude star. Calibration went flawlessly and autoguiding kicked in at completion. At this point, the effect of the wind on the seeing and OTA became obvious. Autoguiding was "chasing the seeing" and quite honestly, it was probably the kind of evening where attempting to autoguide does more harm than good.So I turned off autoguiding and once more used the goto functionality to bring M57 onto the chip. And there it was, just a tiny smoke-ring in the middle of the field, surrounded by dozens of pinprick stars. Exposures of 5, 10 and 15 seconds all resulted in pin-point stars. The sky conditions (too bright) weren't allowing for much longer than that. I ended up taking 60 exposures of 5 seconds and stacking them, discarding only 3 (1 due to a satellite and 2 due to heavy wind gusts).Back to NGC7331 for a similar experience. This time, I was pointed almost at the zenith and the OTA was much more exposed to the wind. But still, only a very small number of frames were unusable due to smearing or trailing of stars.As the wind increased, my final test for the evening was M33, which totally filled the chip. The goto was on the mark and I elected to try some 15-second exposures on this target. I checked the focus and framing, set FireCapture to start capturing and walked away for a few minutes. When I returned, I had 68 15-second frames, maybe 60 of which were as sharp as I could have hoped-for.When a couple really significant wind gusts DID visibly rock the scope, I decided to call it a night.I look forward to much more imaging with this mount, ideally with a more sensitive sensor (my Atik One CCD is my next candidate).

I just got this mount last week, and I have not had much of a chance to use it, but I had upgraded from the CG5-GT to the AVX mount. I will give a more detailed review within 6 months but for now, at first sight of the mount, here are my impressions. The mount has the same sturdy legs, stainless steel 2" diamter legs; from the ground up to the mount not much is pretty much unchanged, I think the locking clamps on the legs are a bit more refined. The mount itself is much more user friendly. The old mount had an altitude and azimuth adjustment knobs on the front, and they were small and the altitude knob would scrape up against the Dec motor housing. This mount has more substantial knobs and they have free movement. The ergonomics of this mount are a substantial upgrade. The Altitude scale, where you see latitude degree above the horizon that you need to palce the scope as to be spot-on with the polar north, is larger and in a more visible location than the older mount. When balancing the mount I find the mechanism to swing more freely. The power cable has a threaded end that helps to secure the power cord to the mount, the old mount could have the power cord just slip out and then you have a real problem, particularly if you were imaging. I find this mount to be quieter than the older mount, as well. I know this review does not assess the functionality and accuracy of the tracking, but I will address that in a later review. So far I am quite impressed with this mount.UPDATE 2/10/17: I have added the QHY Polemaster, and am getting good 90 sec sub frames. If you look at my mount image, you can see I have combined my 80mm ED triplet along with a red dot finder and the Orion SSAG on an aluminum mounting plate. Love this package.

It's rare I write reviews but I had to talk about this one! I love this mount and tripod! I've been in amateur astronomy for over 20 years and never used a GoTo mount personally as I am comfortable manually polar aligning and star hopping with charts. But I figured why not try this out. After a quick polar alignment (I probably didn't have to do this but I wanted to a good alignment) of the scope and mount and a two-star alignment on Castor and Pollux (for convenience), I was in business! The mount is very sturdy with the 2" tripod legs and doesn't feel cheap in my opinion. My equipment is as follows for those wanting examples of weight issues:OTA: Orion 8" Astrograph reflector at ~18 lbs.Telrad and default finderscope from OTACanon EOS 5D camera for astrophotographyHonestly, with the weight I'm putting on the mount it tracks steadily without any problems. I love how I'm table to switch between fast and slow speeds on the hand controller to center my object. This comes in handy at high magnifications when doing a little fine tuning. Two-star alignment wasn't difficult if you know your stars or have a star map handy. You can search for existing cities in your area or you can manually enter GPS coordinates (lat/lon) if you know them. If I remember correctly, this unit does not come with a GPS receiver but you can add it as an accessory per the manual I received.A lot of people complained about the 12vdc cigarette lighter adapter power cord as opposed to having an AC power cord included with the mount. For me this was a godsend as opposed to a problem. I use a 109 Ah deep cycle battery to power my dew heaters, laptop (if needed), and any other telescope accessories. The 12vdc lighter plug is exactly what I needed to run this mount at star parties where no power is available. It also prevented me from having to make my own power cord (a chore sometimes).The only con I have about the mount is that it DOES NOT come with a center-bubble level. You'll either need to purchase your own from a hardware store or use an iPhone app. It only comes with one 11 lb. counterweight which is NOT sufficient to balance my 8". No problem...I used another counterweight from my CG-4 tripod and it all balanced out.