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Hi g-day
In terms of Q1, can you envisage yourself getting into long exposure, auto-guided deep sky imaging with either a ccd camera or a DSLR? Here, the mount’s control unit makes regular, hopefully smooth and minor guiding adjustments to the polar aligned mount as it tracks the e.g. galaxy at the sidereal rate.
This is important because I have seen club members use the "value for money" Celestron, Meade and Chinese mounts and all appear to work well for visual use, have very rich electronic GoTo systems and satisfy the owner.
When it comes down to long exposure deep sky imaging, the Losmandy, Vixen and Tak mounts operate best "out of the box" with a minimum of tweaking.
My first mount was a Vixen GP and it was great for visual use. When I started manually guided 35mm astrophotography it easily rose to the challenge and made the job easy. When I further stressed the Vixen by auto-guided ccd imaging, it again rose to the challenge although it was getting closer to its full capability, but remained reliable, predictable and easy to use. Lesser mounts would have failed this progressively more demanding set of applications. The demands placed on a mount for long exposure deep sky ccd imaging are quite considerable.
With my Tak mount, it literally is set up and go. I have seen fellow club members really struggle with lesser mounts and they often appear to have to work hard all night to nurse them along or tweak them. Some enjoy this facet of the hobby - I don't.
For short exposure planetary and lunar imaging, from the great images I have seen posted on IIS, it appears that you do not require a mid-range mount like the Vixen, or a premium mount like the Losmandy or Tak.
Cheers
Dennis
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