Weight limit of the Skywatcher AZ-EQ6

[bluesilver]

Hi, i was just after a little bit of a second opinion and advise if possible on the Skywatcher AZ-EQ6 weight limit.

I was looking at purchasing a GSO 10" f/12 Classical Cassegrain Reflector Telescope, below is a link to what the scope is, I am looking at getting it from an Australian shop, just this link show what it is better:

https://agenaastro.com/gso-10in-f12-classical-cassegrian-reflector-ota-truss-tube.html

It comes in at 38 pounds, so about 17kg.

I was looking at getting a package deal, the scope and the tripod.
The dealership i was looking to get it from is also adding a third counter weight for the tripod as they said it would be needed, also i will be getting a diagonal as well.

The dealership has said that the tripod will handle this scope ok, I did ask and mentioned about the added extra counter weight of 5kg, Diagonal and eyepieces, and was assured that it would handle it ok.

So i was just interested on a second opinion on this before i decided to put an order in.

Just thought i would ask as i am new to these tripod units, only been using Dobs on goto mounts so far.

Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[sunslayr]

That seems ok to me for visual, might be pushing it if you wanted to go for some AP.

[Atmos]

For visual it’ll handle it fine but I do agree that you’ll need the third weight. I’ve used a Mewlon 250 (which pushes 20kg loaded) on an older EQ6 and AZ-EQ6 for visual and they’ve performed well. The tripod is a bit of a weak link in that the dampening times may be around the 3-5s mark but other than that, it’ll do the job.

[Camelopardalis]

Yeah depends on the use case. They’re generally solid work horses within their limits.

For visual, an equatorial mount sticks the eyepiece in some interesting places, but that’s be a moot point for electronically assisted and/or planetary imaging.

For Deep Space imaging, I wouldn’t be overly concerned as much of the weight is concentrated at the back, like a large SCT. I know peeps with these mounts that use 6” refractors and large SCTs for long exposures without any trouble that would require skills outside of a dedicated astrophotographer...

As Colin says, I’d be looking at sticking it on a pier of upgrading the tripod to something like a Berlebach somewhere along the line.

[The_bluester]

For visual use I would mount it in Alt-Az mode and like others have said, it should perform fine. I cant comment on something that big for AP but I got round stars out of my 9.25 SCT on my Orion Atlas (Same mount as the AZEQ6) with ten minute subs and a couple of test 20 minute ones.

[bluesilver]

Thanks, I appreciate the replies and inputs.
Sounds like it should be fine.
Appreciated.