Had this for well over a year now and time to review it. A little less than 4* really. Delivery in a really sturdy flight case (although what do I do with it now?).

The build feels very nice, a step up from the EQ6-R build I had before (which I liked) and it handles any loads I throw at it easily. Smooth, quiet, fast slewing and easy to use with EQMOD or GSS (which I prefer now).

But... it has the trademark Skywatcher backlash. I can get really good guiding in some orientations but I have to tune it for that position in the sky. So when it works I can get 0.3" but if I leave it alone it defaults to 0.7" - 1.4". It could so easily have been much better.

You can't use it as a side-by-side mount because there are physical stops in Dec. I had planned on using it that way but no chance - or certainly not easy to do.
Would have been nice to have a place to attach a mini/NUC PC to. Not easy to find a place.

A pretty good mount but could have been so much better with a few changes. In hindsight would have chosen a JTW Trident P75 for not much more.

I’ve had my EQ8 about a year and think I should leave a review. The first problem arose with declination backlash, which literally off the scale with dec axis being so floppy guiding close to the zenith being utterly impossible. Relatively easy to fix? Except for the fact that wheel seems to have been drilled off centre, so you get completely different back depending on where you point in the sky. You can see why it was built the way it was. Next is the sticking (sticktion) which is so extreme, particularly in the winter that when PHd2 issues a command, it jumps by about 5 arc seconds at random intervals. With light loads this effect is so extreme the guide star is frequently lost. The majority of subs are lost. There are other problems as well but you get the picture.
It should be an excellent mount if it was made and assembled correctly. My eq6 r pro is great, which is why I bought this one.
I’m sure there are good examples of this mount, but you may end up with one of these which is basically £K3.3 worth of scrap metal. If you get one with problems send it back immediately, don’t assume you can fix it over time like I did, you can’t. Save you pennies for a top notch mount or go for the Ioptron equivalent , the CEM 120. These may have their problems on occasions but seem to be fixable.

The mount head came in a sturdy flight case and we'll packed. It is a very substantial mount and took my 12inch f4 Newtonian with breeze. Only had this a few weeks and only just got around to place in my observatory. Purchased a power supply from Flo as well and performed a home sync which was successful on first attempt. Easy to use with Eqmod too. I have no hesitation of recommending this mount if you're looking for something beefy to take heavy or multiple telescope's. Flo was excellent as usual, many thanks.

Hello, Just received this mount head. Looks very rigid.
Powered on the mount and run the mount with maximum speed using controller (more features alike auto home). It sounds pleasing (wider belts drives).
More tests are pending, while observations, but I think it is going to be wonderful with it.
Thanks
Vikrant, India