I posted 2 screen shots of two similar nights, one with the stock bearings and one with the ceramic bearing.
You are correct about the variables, and have been thinking about this. Should I go back to the stock bearings to get a sense of what has really changed? I did get very familiar with drive train, as I was dealing with it for several months when I first got the mount. I did not touch the stand off bolt that affects worm/ring gear mesh, and I use a straight edge to line up both blocks in order to keep the drive train as straight as possible. There are so many variables to take into account, that it seems almost impossible to do proper testing as hobbyist with limited time. I pretty much lost the winter months of imaging, and I really wanted to get back to it, so my metric was RMS improvement and how many frames I threw away per session(round stars). I did see improvement on both. I'm open to suggestions on testing and getting a clear answer.
Hugo.
Hugo_G