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Its all well and good to say "those who can afford the technology will run with it.." Fact of the matter is this.. There are quite a few people on this forum who have cash to burn, and who truly want to produce the best astro images they can, with what seems to most people to be a relatively infinite budget... Guess what, They use Paramount ME, AP1200, Tak NJP/EM400 mounts.
MOST!! of the worlds best imagers are using PME/AP/Tak mounts. Some of these people have between 70,000 and 200,000 worth of gear at their disposal... Considering on the second hand market you'd probably get 10k US for a paramount in good condition, if they thought it was worth the effort going from a PME to the DDM85, why havent they...
Astronomy is not like Information Technology. Having the latest and greatest isn't really on most peoples minds. Having something that will do what you want it to is always high on the agenda.
If a PME will allow 20 minute guided exposures at 3000+mm F/L, and accurately point the scope at a target, why would you spend more money on another mount that will do exactly the same...
And look at it this way... all this pointing accuracy and tracking in the 10ths of an arc-second is great... A) IF it is that accurate. B) If you require it.. If you intend to image with a KAI-11002M or KAF16803 in an FSQ106, where you're looking at something like 170x110 arc minute field of view, who cares if the target is off centre by .9 arcsec more on mount A than on mount B. Pointing accuracy in the 10ths of arcsec is really only useful for planetary imagers who want to slew straight to jupiter then image it at 14,000mm FL without making adjustments.. For pointing at a deep sky target, I dont know about you, but I rarely leave the target dead centre anyway... I always need to move it a little to get the frame composure that I want, rotate the camera a smidge this way or that to frame it up right.. so who cares if its off centre by 5 or 6 pixels?
Yes - for my uses, either the PME or the DDM85 would be considered EXTREME overkill...
I think you would be DAMN hard pressed to find anyone who would say "The Paramount ME will not do what I need to do, so I bought the DDM85 instead" In light of that, you would be looking at a fool that said "The $13,500 USD mount will do exactly what I want with integration into every leading software suite around, but I bought the $18,500 USD mount just so I could have more technological advancement."
No matter how you go about arguing the technological benefits of the ASA DDM mounts, If there is no appreciable difference in real world imaging over a mount that is cheaper and proven in the field, the technological advancement is not worth the extra $5000USD, which would be better spent going towards a better camera or a better optics..
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