Equipment review : Mounts

Celestron AS-GT

My first mount.  Basically very good value for money.  The build quality was adequate, the mount worked well with payloads of upto about 10-12 kg.  Unfortunately, due to my pursuing astrophotography I quickly reached this figure and noticed that the mount really was at its limits when tracking .
I, like most other owners, dismantled the mount and regreased everything ( the original grease being like tar ).
Initially I used the mount mobile and gained a lot of experience in setting things up and calibrating.
What I did like on the celestron mounts was the hand controller. It was compact, well layed out and had numerous useful functions.  Basically I always found the objects I was searching for.
I sold this mount, including the GSO 8” Newton to a friend at the Astronomy Society and it is still in active use.  For visual use well worth the money, photographically good for starters but definitely limited.