Indeed, if you have the funding you cant go past the mass production Paramount ME. The alternative is to get something custom made with Byer's gears, but the cost would be considerably more.
Ozzie plug - Not sure if you've seen the Ellesa GEM by Anssen Technologies (made in Sydney).
http://www.anssentechnologies.com.au...llesamain.html
This is a very capable mount. Their OTA's are equally impressive, in particular their spot diagrams which challenge the RC design.
For me, it came down to two mounts, the Tak NJP - Temma II or Losmandy Titan. Both have close carrying capacity and capabilities. I settled on the Titan because of the rapid development cycle of the Gemini software and the close alliance with Scott Losmandy. I've read reports that the Titan 50 (same as normal Titan, but different worm gearing) is a remarkable beast. I haven't gone the 50 upgrade yet, but may do so soon (waiting on the delivery of the SBIG STL11k before I commit further money). The major improvement I believe is with guiding. The servos that Losmandy now use are rather tolerant to load especially if you running 18vdc - so burn outs are not an issue. The amount of torque they generate is impressive. I wouldn't hesitate to run a load of 40-50kg on this mount. I've currently got a C11 mounted (approx. 12kg) which is a breeze for the Titan. The mount would handle a 12.5" (approx 25kg) or 14.5" (approx. 35kg) RC with accessories quite well.
The way I look at it, when you can actually afford a 14.5" Truss RC from RCOS costing A$35,000 for the OTA alone, you will not hesitate to upgrade to the Paramount ME. When you’re talking those figures, the ME is actually quite cheap. I do like the robotic features that the ME has, but these can quite easily be adopted to most mounts.
Don't think anyone has asked this but what do you intend to do? Astrophotography can be as broad and long as you want it to be. What will your typical focal length be? Most want to go long to image those distant galaxies, but will your location permit such steady skies? Long focal lengths require demanding tracking/guiding hence dictate mount capabilities.
Sure, a great mount will allow you to use both long and short focal lengths but how many times do you imagine you'll get to use longer than 2000mm (typical for an 8" SCT) on deep sky objects?
Go with your instincts, but be well informed.
