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Hi Gary, and welcome!
I have the GM811G and am very pleased with it for visual and my beginning ventures into AP work. As you know, Losmandy rates it for up to 50lbs OTA weight, which they say is good for AP work, depending on the length of your scope tube. I have the ES 127 triplet, and with guidescope/camera, finder scope and a camera or large eyepiece, my OTA assembly weighs in at about 26 1/2 ?lbs. The mount handles it with no difficulties, and I have lots of room to 'up-scope' if I ever wanted to. ?If I ever did up-scope over the capacity of the 811, I could buy a new G11 DEC axis - and I'd have the G11!? That's one of the design features that attracted me to the GM811G. There is another... And that is your desire to use the mount in an observatory and travel to a remote site - and do this comfortably in your retirement years. I'm 73, freshly retired, and doing exactly that. The second design feature that makes my GM811G so helpful is the RA EXT add-on option, which enables me to quickly break down my setup into four 'chunks' (tripod, RA axis, Dc axis, OTA), which in my case add up to about 100 lbs (including 14 Lbs of counterweights on the Dec axis). The heaviest of my chunks (Dec axis w counterweights) is 31 lbs, which is easy for me to manage.?I can arrive at a field and have the scope assembled, ready to PA in under 5 minutes, and if I have not changed my OTA assembly, it is balanced when assembled. I don't know the dynamics of the CEM 60 & 70, but if I had to lift and move a 50 lb mount/counterweight chunk, I'd certainly be taking the weights off and rebalancing every time.? See this thread for other comments about the RA EXT benefits:?/g/Losmandy_users/topic/just_got_to_shout_out_ra_ext/73017042?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,73017042 I'd add one more comment about the Losmandy mounts - as someone who is re-entering this hobby after a 35 year absence, the learning curve has been real, and I have had several issues to work through as I have made my choices of scope, mount, and accessories - and then in learning the Gemini system and the 811. At every turn in the road, ?the Losmandy staff and community have been quickly available with solid guidance. I *like* having an American company with a quality produced backed up by a team that is responsive to questions and concerns. ? HTH Geoff |
