Query regarding weights

[GordonCopestake]

I have a Vixen GP mount with hardwood tripod that i brought from orion optics last month. A great mount and im really pleased with it. I've brought a new Celestron C8 OTA (Thanks Russ) that hopefully will have arived by friday/saturday. I dont think i have enough weights to counterbalance it so am in need of a few more weights. The OTA is listed as 5.5kg, which i guess i can add about a kilo on for extra goodies. Thats just about the weight limit of my mount at 7kg. My question is two fold:

A) I've realised that im going to need at least a 5kg weight to counterbalance the mount, this puts the weight at over 12kg! Is this too much for my mount or is the counterbalance weight taken into consideration when they list the mounts capacity

Is 5kg about right? Or do i need more?

Any help from people more experienced would be greatfully received!

[GazOC]

1) Mounts are rated without the weights, so the Vixen is rated for 7kg of equipment plus the counterweights to balance it.

2) You might be OK with 5kg at the very end of the bar, it'll be further away from the axis than the scope.

Hope this helps

[GordonCopestake]

Thanks Gaz

Thats what i needed to know

[GazOC]

And the answer you wanted as well eh? Can't be bad!