I've run a CGE mount for 15 years pushing the load limits, held out as mounts come and go, and then the CGXL came out, heard a lot of good things about it, time to step it up. WOW! Last night I rough aligned towards North and set altitude using the gauge on the mount nothing fancy, performed a two-star alignment, the moon was super bright it was late done for the night. Today I used 'last alignment' to see if I could find any planets during the day. I was stunned to see Mercury, Venus, and Sirius slewed almost directly centered in the eyepiece first time! Amazing! This mount far exceeds expectations ! The feel, the sound, 'Go to' accurate tracking everything about this mount is all business, looking forward to imaging stay tuned for an update. Note: If you have an observatory you will need an adapter plate to attach the mount to the pier, should be mentioned if purchasing w/out the tripod? The 110-volt power supply does not come with it. The manual is a PDF file, would prefer a hard copy. Cheers!

This review is to update my original review. I did not realize there would be an opportunity to post pictures. I have clarify pictures that were taken and posted were not high resolution photos. They were all taken at various magnifications. All photos were taken with my pixel 3, and were hand held with no more than 6 seconds. My previous review showed a very low resolution photo of the Ring nebula. My original photo actually does a huge injustice to what the C14 is capable of. I felt I needed to post higher quality pictures. The hand held photos attached are of M13 and M22 taken with my pixel 3 and 6 second exposures at a magnification of 90.

The telescope I have always wanted. I have been in astronomy for 40 years, and the views I have seen renewed my passion for the hobby. The resolving power and light gathering ability of 14 inches aperture are incredible. This is the first telescope I have ever used that averted vision wasn't needed to see all the stars in M13. The size of the telescope makes the 47 pounds awkward to handle if it were not for the carrying handles. The only reason I am giving a 4 star rating and not a 5 is from star tests I have conducted. Visually, stars in focus at low and high power were pinpoint with no visual degradation. However, star tests showed the diffraction patterns to be very close to perfect inside and outside of focus but not exact. I hadn't had a chance to use it on the planets yet. Once I got past the learning curve of setting up the CGXL mount I was able to slew to a few deep sky objects successfully with no backlash. The mount was rock solid stable and, I was able to change out various eyepieces without and residual vibration. My experience dealing with Opt Corp was a pleasant one. The telescope and mount were both back ordered but were shipped when they claimed they would ship. One moment of terror came on when the first telescope that was shipped looked like someone drove a forklift though the box and severely damaged the OT. This was UPS's fault. Not Opt Corp. My heart sank. I immediately called customer service and had no problems getting a RMA to return the OT. I worried that I was going to wait a long time for the replacement to come in,, but it arrived in 30 days. I plan on purchasing more from them again.

Easy to use and VERY accurate. Manual, precise polar alignment doesn't really take that long and with a high power reticle eyepiece very accurate. Doing high power solar and lunar I can walk away for half an hour and its still right on feature I was observing. I'm sure it would require little or no adjustment after an hour. Every thing high quality. Well worth the wait the recent wait.. I have two. One for 6" refractor and one for 14" SCT. Strongly recommend GPS unit. Adds significantly to accuracy and makes startup fast. Also dead centers Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn after sunrise and midday.

These counterweights are quite a bargain, concentrating a log of weight (10kg) into a single spot on the counterweight shaft. Excellent for 1.25" or 32mm applications. I used them on a 30mm counterweight shaft, by putting in a thin teflon sleeve made of adhesive teflon material. The finish is not "perfect", but is surprisingly good for counterweights from this source, and the knobs are easy to use and effective. There is a non-marring plastic tip on the securing bolt end.

So far I love it. No backlash! It works well with the external GPS and star sync. It would be nice if they built in a USB hub. It would also be nice if it had a built in GPS. Having the power and hand pad plug in stationary was a huge improvement. Shipping by OPT was fast.