My new EQ8 mount is now back from my mate Chris.  

Chris made a 15cm high pier extension to raise the whole kit and caboodle so that the observatory walls don't get in the way so much.

Because the whole mount + cameras/filter wheel/focal reducer + counterweights weighs in at an estimated 82 kg, the pier extension is made from a solid block of 19cm diameter alumunium! With this concentration of mass, gravitational lensing will now swamp the punny effects of 9.25" mirror on the C9.25".

One the subject of counterweights, Chris got hold of a Celestron CGEM 7.7kg counterweight and bored out the central hole to 1.25"so that I can use it as a third counterweight on the EQ8. This allows me to push the two original 10 kg weights far higher up the counterweight bar.