An excellent Italian planetary photographer uses this exact setup:
http://danielegaspar...-cm-su-una.html
Just because you have the mount balanced, does not mean that the extra load will not adversely effect your mount. The problem here is angular momentum. Once moving, it is hard to stop, once stopped, it is hard to get started again. More mass, well balanced or not, means harder stop and starting and slewing. In theory, overloading any mount may lead to significant wear and tear on the whole assembly.
OK, let's put it another way, "A C14 will not burn out your stepper motors."
The main problem is one of shakiness.
An excellent Italian planetary photographer uses this exact setup:
http://danielegaspar...-cm-su-una.html
His planetary results speak for themselves. He has not modified his mount in any way other than to add a Losmandy dovetail adapter. I would never attempt this setup, but it's hard to argue it doesn't work. He's even using the standard tripod...on a balcony.
Below is a partial translation of the his blog post:
There were many concerns and doubts among my fellow amateurs about my choice of mount and its real-world performance.
As some of you might know, for my hi-res and visual observations I use a Celestron C14, carefully balanced on a Chinese mount called the EQ6.
That OTA weighs about 22 kg, so in order to balance it perfectly during video filming I need 24 kg in counterweights.
Many people raised their eyebrows and some even shuttered at the thought of my using such a large OTA on that Chinese mount that is economical but not quite the sturdiest.
Per my usual, I don't like to doing things by hearsay, and seeing that the mount is designed for a net carrying capacity (the OTA) of 25 kg, I tried paring them up. This was also because the next mount up in carrying capacity would have cost me more than the 500 Euro I paid for a used EQ6 (at least extra 0 more!).
As is apparent, and after a year of use, I can say that for my purposes this mount is perfect and it is absolutely not worth buying a more costly mount which would do the same job that the EQ6 does.
Below is a video of Jupiter, filmed last 1 September [Note: 2011], under average seeing. As you can see there are no vibrations and no other issues introduced by the mount itself.
[Note: Video of Jupiter is playable on page]
The processed image is this [Note: The word "questa" links to a processed image of Jupiter based on the video]
This [Note: The hyperlinked word "Questa" links to a solar photo] image is processed from a video taken in winds of 15km/h from my home balcony (12-story building) with a busy street below it. Vibrations even under these conditions are non-existent, and [the lack of them] bested more talked-up and expensive mounts, which instead are quite sensitive to city traffic.
Below is one part of the original video: [Note: video link]
Thus I would say that the EQ6 with a C14 works quite well even in conditions that are prohibitive to high resolution imaging. If you need proof, check out the image gallery [Note: "gallery" is hyperlinked] on my website that contains images made with this setup. I did not upgrade the mount in any way other than adding a Losmandy dovetail saddle adapter in place of the standard Vixen dovetail saddle.
At this point I can conclude the matter closed on whether this mount can handle this OTA with one small moral: it is easy to obtain good results with super expensive equipment and spending every cent available; it is a little less easy but more rewarding to obtain the same results with equipment that doesn't cost a quarter as much.
Icing on the cake: I don’t use a motorized focuser. Actually the focuser on my C14 was cannibalized from a 10-inch Skywatcher Newtonian [Note: no specification of model] that was literally glued to the end of the telescope. Ultimately it is only necessary to know how to make do and to not believe in the marketing that wants to impose upon us costly accessories in the name of a precision that one can reach with a can-do attitude and common sense.
[Note: This does not contain a translation of text follwing the the words and date "AGGIORNAMENTO 30/09/2011" visible on the webiste - I can translate the rest upon request]
Edited by gfstallin, 17 September 2016 - 08:16 PM.
