Celestron - CG-5 GT

Is this a good mount for astrophotography? It's on sale for $550 HERE

I'm very happy with mine. It's quite noisy compared to other mounts but it's a lot lighter than the next step up (CGEM, EQ-6, Atlas) if you are going to have to move it around. I use it unguided with a 5" refractor, although you'd probably want something lighter for guided astrophotography.

Its a great mount for the price, the new zeq25 by ioptron and the new celestron vx are the only reasonable contenders I can think of. I really like my CG5, it will take you a good 6-12 hours to master the leveling, balance, polar alignment, and if you go the auto guide route you may need to add a few more hours to the learning curve process before everything is perfect, if you are unfamiliar with EQ mounts. Once you get over the hump then it's smooth sailing. The mount is great for anything under 15lbs if you want to do astrophotography, I have autoguided for 20 minutes on mine without a hicup. I have used a 10 inch RC on the cg5 for visual and it worked fine. If you want to autoguide with big 10"-14" catadioptrics, SC's, or 6 inch refractor scopes then I would go with a larger mount. If ultra portability is you goal and you have a small payload requirement then the ioptron smart eq pro will fit the bill fantastically. Let us know what you decide to do, and clear skies!