Celestron 11-inch Dovetail bar - CGE
- 444.5 mm (17.5") Overall Length
- CGE "Wide" Dovetail Standard
- Engineered for Celestron CGEM and CGX Mounts
- Provides a Rigid, Low-Flexure Connection for Imaging
The Celestron 11-inch Dovetail Bar provides a secure, wide-format CGE mounting platform for optical tubes on Celestron's heavy-duty CGEM and CGX series mounts.
This dovetail bar utilizes the CGE "wide" mounting standard, engineered specifically for the higher payload capacities of Celestron's CGEM and CGX equatorial mounts. The wider plate provides a more substantial contact area with the mount saddle, significantly reducing flexure and torsional instability compared to narrower dovetail systems.
At 444.5 mm (17.5 inches) long, this bar offers a long mounting footprint. It provides sufficient travel for balancing the telescope, especially when adding accessories like guide scopes, cameras, or heavy eyepieces, ensuring your mount can track accurately without strain.
While the narrower Vixen-style dovetail is lighter and common on smaller mounts, the CGE standard is the preferred choice for serious imaging. The primary advantage is its superior rigidity. For long-exposure astrophotography, any amount of flexure between the telescope and the mount can lead to trailed stars and compromised images.
By connecting your optical tube to a CGEM or CGX mount with this matching CGE bar, you create a mechanically sound system from end to end. This ensures that you are leveraging the full stability and tracking precision your heavy-duty Celestron mount was designed to deliver.
The primary difference is width and rigidity. The Celestron CGE dovetail bar is a "wide" or "D-style" plate, designed for heavier loads on mounts like the CGEM and CGX. A Vixen-style bar is narrower and lighter, intended for smaller telescopes and mounts with lower capacity, such as the Advanced VX.
Yes, on current models. As of early 2019, Advanced VX mounts include a dual saddle plate that accommodates both CG-5 and CGE-style dovetails, so this CGE bar fits the AVX as well as the CGEM, CGX, and other mounts with a CGE saddle.
Mounting hardware is not specified as an included item. You will typically use the mounting screws that came with your telescope's tube rings or the optical tube itself to attach the dovetail bar.
Despite the "11-inch" name, the bar is 444.5 mm (17.5 inches) long. The key is to have enough length to slide the telescope forward and backward in the saddle to achieve perfect balance with your chosen accessories (camera, eyepieces, etc.).