Yes it's an aluminium tube, I just weighted it and it's 12kg. I have an EQ6-pro here and that's what it was mounted on.
The edge system is better for photography no doubt, I used this scope strictly for visual observing and for that purpose you wouldn't notice a lot of difference. I doubt anyone serious about astro photographer would use a C11 anyway, they are just too slow.
Here Bintel has the Celestron C11-A XLT OTA which is essentially the same scope new for $3,499, around $2000 more than i am asking.
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/ce...1-xlt-ota-cge/