How heavy is your equipment? I have a telescope lying around that is used for observation and not photography, but I could buy an adapter for it. The telescope is 3.5kg and my camera another 500g, so ~4kg in total. Do you think it can handle this? Or does something this heavy cause too much issues?

I have one for mildly hot temperature. If it gets cold I put something below it that covers my ears, like a thin beanie or a type of Balaclava made for biking for really cold temperatures. If its too hot, I just suffer.