Yes, it's like a drift alignment on steroids. I made a cheat sheet of instructions located on my desktop that helps me dial it in quickly. It has stuff like to move mount west in Az, turn knob X. I also have what each graduation represents on the adjustment knobs. The exact measurements of what the short and long marks represent are in the AP manual. I have the same for Altitude adjustments, ie, to lower mount, turn Alt knob clockwise. Again, the graduations are in the manual. The graduations are so accurate, that if it says to move mount west 10 arc min in Azimuth, then I move it just short of the mark and measure again. I find that if I shoot for just 2 arc min short, the graph usually says, you need to move it another 2 arc min. I prefer not to overshoot. It only takes me a couple iterations to hit the mark. The cool part is one you hit 0 – and nothing moves, you are spot on pole. It’s a good feeling
A few tips, wait about two min to get an accurate measurement on the graph. Restrict your dancing around the mount with joy, because you will pick that up in the graph. Write stuff down and create a cheat sheet of instructions, so when you go remote, polar alignment is an easy 20 min job. I always have the camera in the same orientation on the scope for polar alignment. The calibration routine creates star trails at first to determine your camera angle and image scale. You can use these trails to determine if you are way off pole buy the orientation of the star trails across the frame. Consistency is good thing for this task. Once you have been through it a few times, it really doesn’t take long at all.
I use my STi as a guide camera, but with a small guide scope. Works well. Having a shutter on a guide scope is great.
Terry