After over a year of owning and using a Celestron Evolution mount, initially with the 9.25" SCT for visual and planetary imaging, but more recently with a Skywatcher Esprit 80 for DSO imaging, I finally took the step of ordering a Celestron Advanced VX mount, taking advantage of the ridiculous sale price at @FLO.

I'd always been hesitant to move to an EQ mount even though I knew it's advantages for imaging. Just the thought of all that extra set up gave me a cold sweat. I loved the ease of the Evolution mount. It took about 5 minutes to set up, another few minutes for the StarSense to do its magic and align itself and in short order I could be focused and imaging.

Over the course of the year I added more to my equipment list:

• I bought the StarSense to speed up alignment. It's a luxury that isn't needed but it got me up and running so quickly.
• I purchased PixInsight and BackyardEOS. Both made great improvements. BackyardEOS made taking images so much easier, and the quality of my processing started to improve using PixInsight (and gradually got better as I found more tutorials and guides).
• I purchased the Skywatcher Esprit 80. This was a revelation in terms of being able to image. The SCT was great for visual and for planetary/lunar imaging but would not work for DSO imaging. The Esprit was amazing. It's much wider field of view was ideal for the targets I loved.
• I swapped my Canon EOS 60d DSLR to a mono ZWO ASI 1600MM-C with electronic filter wheel and a set of LRGB filters. I hated the noise of the DSLR and the processing difficulties. I also didn't like its lack of red response (not bad, just not very good). I knew the ZWO ASO1600 would be great with an Alt/Az mount as it worked well at shorter exposures.
• I purchased Sequence Generator Pro. I needed a replacement for BackyardEOS now I was using a new camera. Having tried a few options, this was the one for me. It was a little more tricky to wrap my head around the idea of profiles and sequences, but once I'd figured it out, it worked really well for me.
• I added a Lakeside focuser to the Esprit so that I could automate focusing within SGPro.
• I purchased an Astrodon 3nm Ha filter. Again, this made a massive improvement to imaging. Still within the 30-60s exposure lengths I could squeeze out of the Evolution mount, the image was so much better than from my LRGB filters.

I'd purchased all of the above knowing that they would work with any mount, so once i made the step up to an EQ mount, I'd be all set. I ordered a Celestron AVX mount along with the ZWO OAG (which would work with my ZWO ASI224 camera for guiding). I chose Celestron for two reasons: I already has the StarSense to aligning would be easier, and I liked that you could align on any star rather than Polaris.

I had two set up locations, at either end of my (small) garden. I have limited visibility with street lights to the north and houses blocking the view from the SSW through to the NW. However, I had a good easterly view - ideal for Alt/Az imaging as field rotation is lowest to the east and west. I would normally set up outside the kitchen which really limited my view to the south but meant I could stretch the cables through the window and sit inside in the relative warmth. If I needed a more southerly view I could move the mount to the other end of the garden but it meant also setting up the laptop there too. I tried using a remote PC but the WiFi strength was too flaky and I had yet to set up any network cabling.

I intended to continue to use both locations with the EQ mount. I would gain a wider view because I could now aim the scope above about 60 degrees altitude (the absolute limit for my Evolution mount with the refractor plus imaging train).

I finally decided to try an EQ mount for three reasons:

• Being able to image above 60 degree altitude
• Eliminating field rotation which was slowly meaning I was losing up to 40% of my field of view because of cropping stacking artefacts
• The price, during the recent sale, became too attractive

I also opted for an OAG. My plan was to continue with shorter exposures but I already had a suitable guide camera and having the option of improving my tracking even over 60s and adding the option of longer subs should I choose seemed a sensible decision.

My plan was to test unguided imaging using the StarSense polar alignment routine only, hoping to get good 60s subs, then to progress to either improved alignment using the drift method (unlikely) or adding guiding (more likely).