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Terry,
In the case of faint nebulosity and even faint galaxies the CCD will still have to wait for the photons to arrive !
That will still take time (well more than just a few seconds) as there are simply not that many photons arriving at all for some of them, so dont thow out the baby with the bathwater just yet !
A mount will be required to track and guiding to correct for along time yet.
Check out Black Silicon too - pretty amazing stuff Qe of 10,000% !
Regarding the argument on the direct drive mounts, the mechanics and electronics of these things still have errors that are at the levels that will affect astrophotography.
Bearings do have some periodic error and the two axiis are unlikely to be perfectly orthogonal to one another - nothing mechanical is perfect.
Nothing that a PinPoint model and a guiding cant fix.
The electronic drive positioning systems are also only so accurate - imagine how many db the drive amplifiers would need to be to keep up with 1/10th arc second resolution
I think that conceptually a direct drive system could be superior - should be cheaper in the long term with volumes, less parts, less cumulative errors in gears, bearings, mountings etc etc, but that isnt going to happen overnight.
In the mean time the P-ME will likely stay alive for many years - remember its not just the mount as a purely mechanical device that counts - its the software compatibility and all the tools that go with it that makes the mount perform to the levels that it does that counts and this is where the P-ME will shine for a long time to come. It really is a team effort and tthat takes time to develop.
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