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Hi Stevie
Iv had mine for about two years now and still loving it. being battery powered makes it a lot easy to pack up and just pop out for a few hours without needing cables and batteries and all that.
Iv never had a lot of luck with the built in polar scope, Im sure its perfect for those on top of the world. I use a compass and an inclinometer to get pretty close and this will usually give me over a minute with a 250mm lens.
Now that I have moved up to a 72mm scope and Im guiding I find that polar alignment is much more crucial, to solve this, I rough align like I always have, this puts me within 5 degrees of the pole, and then use Sharpcaps polar align with the guide camera to get pretty much spot on, this has given me over 3 minutes with the 72ed. The latitude adjustment is quite course but I find that I can still make tiny adjustments without problems.
For the tripod, Im using a modified survey tripod from bunnings, under $100 all up and very stable, not as portable as a camera tripod but there no flex and dampens out vibrations very quickly.
Also, one other thing I have realized. Im always lusting after a bigger mount, as we all do, but I think even when I get a HEQ5 or such, the little SA will still be used as a widefield mount or for video during a lunar eclipse or a million other uses, I think it will be a good companion for years no matter when the hobby takes you.
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