1. Eliminate no, minimise yes.
You'll still need an autofocuser for long duration astro photgraphy (and an auto guider)
Carbon fibre has a much lower thermal expansion coefficient than aluminium or steel.
From:
http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/overview.html
About 2/3 of the way down
Carbon Fiber = Low thermal mass, low expansion, and stable focus
Coefficient of Expansion... (x / unit length / Deg. C x 10 -6 power)
Aluminum = 18.35
Steel = 11.0
Titanium = 8.5
Invar 1.1
Carbon Fiber (High Modulus with Epoxy) = 0.9
see also
http://www.southern-astro.com.au/php...ccdprogram.php
2)
Falling temperature would be good for a CCD, eliminate more heat, but mechanical gears and Perodic Error (PEC) of your mount will change as temperature changes, unless your gears are made of welded dipolar exotic metals (one that shrinks matched to one that expands at exactly the same rate as the temperature falls or rises) like watch makers used to make the first chronograph (Harrisons H-1, 2, 3, 4 and Kendall's K-1 (a relative!) ) to pass the accuracy tests for determining Longitude at sea.
Refer
http://www.astrosurf.com/demeautis/ep/pe.htm and go into each mounts specifics to see PEC mapped to temperature, e.g.
Losmandy G-11
http://www.astrosurf.com/demeautis/ep/leroy.gif