Does this need cleaning? Photos attached

[Waldemar]

On your limit, or the mount's?

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, Waldemar said:

On your limit, or the mount's?

The mount.  I need about 35kg of counterweights on it to balance it, and it doesnt like the wind!

[Louis D]

38 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

The mount.  I need about 35kg of counterweights on it to balance it, and it doesnt like the wind!

Yikes!!! That's almost 80 pounds of counterweights!  My back would never be able to hoist that sort of load onto a mount.  One more reason I'm not a big fan of GEMs.  Now, a split ring mount, that would be more appealing to me for an EQ mounted Newt.

[Waldemar]

What mount do you use for that?

[tooth_dr]

2 minutes ago, Waldemar said:

What mount do you use for that?

EQ6

[Waldemar]

... you do realise that you're overloading it, I guess? It's livespan will be shortened a lot...

[tooth_dr]

34 minutes ago, Waldemar said:

... you do realise that you're overloading it, I guess? It's livespan will be shortened a lot...

We cant all afford the big mounts! Skywatcher seem happy to sell it as a package

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-explorer-300pds-neq6-pro-goto-telescope.html

[Waldemar]

Of course I realize that, but you must have more on it then just the 300PDS, needing 35 kgs of cws... or did you mean lbs?
And wind is always a gamespoiler, no matter how big the mount, especially without a dome.

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, Waldemar said:

Of course I realize that, but you must have more on it then just the 300PDS, needing 35 kgs of cws... or did you mean lbs?
And wind is always a gamespoiler, no matter how big the mount, especially without a dome.

Just checked it’s 30kg!

The website above selling it shows 10kg CWs, but this can’t be right.

Here is mine with 2 cameras - but there is no eyepiece or finderscope - so I’d say close to the standard weight the way it is sold to be used.   It takes 30kg to balance it (perhaps slightly less with different sized weights but I doubt 10kg would do it)

I agree though that the EQ6 is more suited to a 10”