So, my long saga getting round stars met with some clarity last night. Sitting at the computer I watched my carefully aligned small PE system generate stars with and eccentricity of 0.6 in frustration. Maxim was fine tuned, the PEM was fine tuned, etc. So I recalled what a friend said: when in doubt go back to basics. So I shot some unguided images and guided images at 100s with L and there was the eccentricity of 0.6 which improved into the 0.5s with guiding. I then caught a glance of the elevation of the scope in APCC and it said that the scope was 45 DEG elevation... and I recalled mirror tilt with RCs. So I stopped Expert Scheduler, shot the same L images pointing vertically and they were 0.5 unguided and 0.4 guided (round). I may not be the brightest bulb in the pack but eventually the light goes off.
The SBIG 8300M I have not to mention the focuser weighs in at about 6lbs and is about 1 foot behind the mirror. At 45 DEG the level are is still 4.2 foot lbs.