[jase (Jason)]

Tony,
You know my views on this (PM).

Additional things to consider are;

• Don't believe the marketing hype around PE peak to peak statistics. Ask owners as to what they experience.
• Despite what everyone thinks, PEC is still very important. A mount with a well-calibrated PEC can minimise the amount of auto-guider corrections resulting in rounder, sharper stars. You only have to see the PEMpro statistics to realise the importance of PEC.
• Check the Takahashi mounts, PEC support does not exist. AP and Gemini do.
• Check how many star alignment points are supported in the mounts in-built pointing model. The more the better, but don't stress about it as you'll eventually want to purchase MaxPoint or T-Point.
• Capacity on most mounts is under rated. The Takahashi mounts can generally take more load than specified, as can the AP and Titan but you need to verify balance.
• Support - never under estimate it. There is probably a larger Gemini user base than AP and Takahashi combined consider the same code is used on the GM-8, HGM-200 and Titan. ...and of course the world renowned G-11 that made astrophotography a possibility for the average Joe.
• Balance, balance, balance... Some mounts are more critical in the balance of the OTA/counter weight than others. The Titan is a little touchy with this and requires reasonable balancing, though when operating in 18v mode the servos have some serious grunt (torque) so motor stalls are rare.
• The Titan 50 sounds really cool, but don’t expect major improvements. The “50” modifies the gear ratios to provide more torque. Note: tracking accuracy remains the same as the original Titan.
• Make sure backlash particularly in DEC is minimal if not non-existent. Some play maybe required depending on manufacturer specifications. Most mount firmware has backlash compensation build in, but this needs tuning to work well.
• Taking about tuning, no matter what mount you get from top to low end. They all require tweaking to maximise performance. Some may require re-greasing worms or optimising worm block spacing, through to simply software settings for auto-guider aggression.

If you want to know any details on the Titan, I'm happy to share my experience.