Is the Celestron CG5 still sold?

Not new. Celestron's own CG-5 page lists it out of stock with no price, and no UK or US shop lists it new, so a CG5 is a second-hand buy.

How much can the CG5 carry?

Celestron states no payload figure for the CG5 on its pages. It sold the mount under its Advanced Series telescopes up to the C11, and it carried my 10-inch Newtonian, a 14 kg tube before the camera.

Does the CG5 need counterweights?

Yes. Every load needs them on the bar.

Can the CG5 autoguide?

Yes. The head has an autoguide port, and Celestron lists autoguide ports among its motor ports.

No. Next to the AM5N, which zips between objects quietly, the CG5 makes unholy sounds as it slews.

Where can I buy the Celestron CG5?

Nowhere new: Celestron's own page is out of stock with no price, and no UK or US shop lists it. Look for a used one; it often comes bundled with a telescope.

Celestron CG5 review: a cheap second-hand GoTo mount

Where does it rank on our leaderboard

Nine of the 18 mounts on my board, against price
Rank	Mount	Stars for Your Buck	Recorded UK price
1	TeSeek NanoTracker	100 out of 100	£52
2	ClearSky ST25	94 out of 100	£1,259
3	TeSeek 11	93 out of 100	£252
5	JUWEI-14	89 out of 100	£632
8	ZWO AM5N	71 out of 100	£2,099
11	ClearSky ST17 Mini	56 out of 100	£712
14	Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i	42 out of 100	£249
17	Sky-Watcher GTi Mount	33 out of 100	£435
18	Celestron CG5	24 out of 100	£299

Contents

01 Where does it rank on our leaderboard
02 Specifications and features
03 In the hand
04 What is it for? In my words
05 Watch the review
06 Should you buy it?
07 Questions and more about this review

In 30 seconds

Stars for Your Buck 24/100

Reviewed 29 May 2024 Updated 24 Sep 2026

Rank: #18 of 18 mounts
Verdict: With reservations

Written by Damon Scotting 4 min read

Buy it if

You find one second-hand with a telescope in the bundle and want GoTo at the eyepiece.
You like a wired hand controller with 40,000 objects and no app.

Skip it if

You want to buy new: it is discontinued.
You want a quiet mount or WiFi control.
You carry your mount far: Celestron lists it at 19 kg.

“Much like the 10-inch Celestron Newtonian, this has been my go-to. It's cheap and as far as mounts go it's relatively lightweight.”

Celestron $349

Specifications and features

Against the mounts I have reviewed

Compare with

Celestron CG5 reviewed #18 of 18	Celestron CGX #15 of 18	Sky-Watcher GTi Mount #17 of 18	TeSeek 11 #3 of 18	JUWEI-14 #5 of 18
Recorded UK price	£299	£2,469	£435	£252	£632
Stars for Your Buck	24/100	38/100	33/100	93/100	89/100
Average guiding RMS	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown	0.92 arcsec	0.98 arcsec
Type	German equatorial, DC servo motors with encoders	German equatorial, DC servo motors	Equatorial GoTo tracker	Harmonic drive	Harmonic drive
No-counterweight payload	None: it needs counterweights	None: it needs counterweights	None: it needs its counterweight	5 kg	8 kg
Counterweight payload	Over 15.9 kg (35 lb), maker payload claim	25 kg (55 lb)	5 kg (11 lb)	not recorded	13 kg
Mount weight	19 kg (42 lb)	20 kg head; 38.6 kg kit	2.6 kg	1.3 kg	3.4 kg
Periodic error	not recorded	not recorded	About 40 arcsec in one reviewer’s Guiding Assistant test; amplitude convention not stated	not recorded	not recorded
Gearing	Worm gears on RA and Dec	Belt drive; spring-loaded brass worm wheel, stainless steel worm; PEC	Worm drive; 92 mm aluminium-alloy gear	Harmonic reducers on both axes	RA 400:1; Dec 100:1
Control	NexStar hand control, 40,000 objects; RS-232 on the handset, AUX and autoguide ports	NexStar+ hand control, 40,000+ objects; USB, 2 AUX, autoguide port	SynScan Pro app over WiFi; optional SynScan hand controller; USB, ST-4, camera port	OnStep: phone app over Bluetooth or WiFi, ASIAIR, NINA and SharpCap	OnStep
Power	Car battery adapter	12 V DC, 4 A	8 x AA or 12 V DC	5 V, 2 A from a USB power bank	12 V DC, 3 A; 5.5 x 2.1 mm socket
Tripod or pier	2 in stainless steel tripod with accessory tray	Steel tripod, 2 in (50.8 mm) legs, 1,200 to 1,969 mm, 8.7 kg	Kit: steel tripod 68 to 113 cm, 2.49 kg, 21.6 cm pier extension	38 mm Arca clamp underneath; a latitude adjuster and a tripod needed	3/8 inch photo tripod; AM5 three-hole fixing
In the box	Head, tripod and accessory tray, counterweight bar and counterweight, hand control	Head, tripod, accessory tray, two 5 kg counterweights, NexStar+ hand control and holster, Allen wrench, 12 V cable	Mount head, illuminated polar scope, counterweight shaft and counterweights; the kit adds the steel tripod and pier extension	The mount	Mount head

In the hand

The head and its ports

The counterweight bar

The counterweights

At night with the 10-inch

With the 8-inch Newtonian

Under the night sky

What is it for? In my words

Two things it is for

40,000 objects

The mount searches and tracks as many as 40,000 deep-sky objects, so a telescope on it lets me explore the universe in tremendous detail and with extreme ease.

A second-hand bundle

Second-hand, it often comes as a bundle with a telescope and accessories, and a 10-inch Newtonian on a CG5 makes a monstrous setup for the money.

Watch the review

What YOU can SEE with a $1000 Telescope?! · published 29 May 2024 · 9:07 · Watch on YouTube · 66,225 views, 1,827 likes on 2 Oct 2026

Jump to

0:34 The used 10-inch Newtonian and CG5
1:46 What came in the bundle
3:05 The Orion Nebula at the eyepiece
4:05 Jupiter and Saturn
5:00 Live views with the Uranus-C camera
5:19 Long exposures with this setup
5:53 A new 80 mm refractor on a tracker
6:40 The Celestron 6SE
7:26 The bottom line

Transcript of the review video 437 words · 4 chapters · searchable

Press a time stamp to play from there.

2:36 An 8 to 24 mm zoom eyepiece

2:37 After selling all of the eyepieces, I decided to reinvest part of the money into an ultra versatile 8 to 24 mm eyepiece that doesn't require me 2:43 to swap out any other eyepieces every 5 seconds for an enhanced view all I have to do is twist the barrel and the universe moves

3:05 The Orion Nebula at the eyepiece

3:06 that is the best view I've ever had of the Orion Nebula oh that is special it's due to the effect of the lens but it just feels 3:17 like you are actually creating a 3d effect when you actually twist the barrel and because it's the Orion Nebula it just has this sense of depth to it naturally anyway so 3:26 it feels like you are traveling towards it and almost going inside of it yeah it's really cool it's really cool highly recommend getting one of these just for 3:36 the sole experience essentially being able to travel through space as you twist the barrel and venture towards your target yeah that was special the 3:44 Orion Nebula I'm going to point it at something else now and see if I get the same sort of feeling just doing it then to Betelgeuse 3:51 that one's very cool because it just gets even redder as you zoom in to the star like it goes from being sort of 3:57 an orangey colour amongst Vari colours and then as you magnify it just becomes this dark red colour that's really cool Jupiter looks phenomenal as

4:05 Jupiter and Saturn

4:08 always and we can make out three of its largest moons with one of them transiting the gas giant Jupiter is of course the largest planet in our solar 4:15 system and this particular moon is Ganymede which also happens to be the largest moon in our solar system in second place for the planet measuring contest comes 4:25 Saturn its brightest moons are a little harder to make out so I've played around with the exposure a little so that you can see them you can clearly 4:32 identify the Cassini division in Saturn's rings it's very distinct but still a testament to the telescope's capabilities if you can make it out next

4:39 The Moon

4:40 up the moon never better to observe than when it's between 25 to 75% illuminated this allows you to explore many of its craters with terrific levels of contrast 4:50 but if you're in search of something a little beyond the reaches of our solar system perhaps the birthplace of new solar systems then this is what you can 4:58 expect to see I'm able to share these live views with you thanks to the help of my Uranus camera, my Player One Uranus camera.

Check out more videos on the Celestron CG5

Why it is BETTER than most Mounts? | AM5N Review.

7 Nov 2024

This $600 CAMERA is BETTER than most TELESCOPES!

16 Feb 2023

Should you buy it?

24/100 Stars for Your Buck

Pros

DC servo motors with encoders on both axes, and an autoguide port on the head.
It carried my 14 kg 10-inch Newtonian.
A 2 inch stainless steel tripod with an accessory tray.
Celestron tubes sold with a CG-5 dovetail drop straight into its saddle.

Cons

Loud when it slews: unholy sounds next to a quiet strain-wave mount like the AM5N.
It needs counterweights for every load.
Discontinued: it is a second-hand buy, and Celestron's own page lists it out of stock.
No WiFi or app: control is the wired NexStar hand controller.

It is one of the first astrophotography setups I ever owned due to its cheap cost and surprising capabilities.

Who the CG5 is for

Visual observer on a tight budget

Buy

A used CG5 with a Newtonian puts 40,000 objects on a hand controller.

Owner of a Celestron tube with a CG-5 dovetail

Buy

The saddle takes the tube as it is.

Beginner who wants to buy new

Skip

It is discontinued; my recommendation is the TeSeek 11.

Imager who wants quiet, backlash-free tracking

Skip

My recommendation is the JUWEI-14: a strain-wave mount carrying 8 kg without a counterweight.

Anyone who travels with a mount

Skip

Celestron lists it at 19 kg; my recommendation is the TeSeek 11, a 1.3 kg head.

Stargazer who wants app control

Skip

It has no WiFi; the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi runs from a phone app.

Three alternatives I have reviewed

Questions and more about this review

Reviewed by

Damon Scotting

The Telescope Man Verified

BSc (Hons) Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology, Loughborough University PGCE / QTS, University of Nottingham

About Damon About Damon Damon Scotting is The Telescope Man. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics and Cosmology from Loughborough University and a PGCE with QTS from the University of Nottingham, and taught physics in secondary schools before becoming an astronomy creator. He is a contributing writer for BBC Sky at Night Magazine and the author of 42 Wonders of Our Night Sky, and his photograph of the galaxy M100 with the dwarf planet Ceres was Highly Commended in the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 competition run by Royal Observatory Greenwich. He has appeared on the BBC's Blue Peter. More than 750,000 people follow his astronomy channels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and he has reviewed more than 140 telescopes, mounts, cameras, filters and accessories hands-on for this site. More about Damon · How I test · Damon's book

I review all kinds of gear: most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way. How this site is funded

Six questions, answered

Questions about the Celestron CG5

Reviewed 29 May 2024 ·Updated 24 September 2026

I review all kinds of gear. Most of it I buy, some is gifted and some is loaned, and all of it is reviewed the same way: no company sees or approves a review before it is published. How this site is funded

Is the Celestron CG5 still sold? Not new. Celestron's own CG-5 page lists it out of stock with no price, and no UK or US shop lists it new, so a CG5 is a second-hand buy. The specifications and the comparison table ↓
How much can the CG5 carry? Celestron states no payload figure for the CG5 on its pages. It sold the mount under its Advanced Series telescopes up to the C11, and it carried my 10-inch Newtonian, a 14 kg tube before the camera. In the hand ↓
Does the CG5 need counterweights? Yes. Every load needs them on the bar. In the hand ↓
Can the CG5 autoguide? Yes. The head has an autoguide port, and Celestron lists autoguide ports among its motor ports. In the hand ↓
Is the CG5 quiet? No. Next to the AM5N, which zips between objects quietly, the CG5 makes unholy sounds as it slews. Watch the review ↓
Where can I buy the Celestron CG5? Nowhere new: Celestron's own page is out of stock with no price, and no UK or US shop lists it. Look for a used one; it often comes bundled with a telescope. The verdict, the readers and the sellers ↓