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Lots of views and no responses, so I'll have a crack.
The TDM system adds a very high resolution encoder to the centre of the mount itself (replaces the polar scope I think).
This allows the system to monitor where the mount is *actually* pointing, rather than where it thinks it is pointing.
So corrections, very accurate ones, can be applied very quickly, which would remove things like PE and even wind gusts and bumps I would imagine.
So assuming your polar alignment was pretty much perfect, you could get away without guiding for quite reasonable length exposures.
No guidescope or guidescope flex to worry about, one less camera, no issues with having to find a guidestar, accidentally guiding on a hot pixel etc.
Downside is that if the seeing is all over the place, it won't help you, or if your polar alignment is off.
Apparently the new model allows a guidecam as well.
I would think it would work great with an adaptive optics setup, the TDM would make sure the scope was tracking perfectly, with almost no PE etc. and the AO would take care of refraction/seeing/slight abberations and so on.
It is pricey though, about $2000, but if you already have an old EQ6 or CGEM, then you are payinh $2000 to get a mount that has a PE of potentially < 2" which would mean all you have to worry about is your polar alignment.
It is transferrable between different mounts by utilising different adapters, so there is some potential for changing around if you get a different mount.
I would think it should be possible to 'push' the mount around and not have it lose it's marbles, as the TDM would know how far you moved it.
Downside:
PA has to be very good, no accounting for atmospherics (though if the seeing is that bad, do you really want to image anyway?)
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