Raymo.... Thanks for the compliment... but I am not very consistent at this yet. Hopefully one day I am good enough for the main forum. The original picture I made from these images was not good. Not quite sure how I was able to do so much better this time, but it has encouraged me beyond belief!
Anth10.... Drift alignment drives me nuts! Absolute bane of my life... and given I have a wife and three daughters that's saying something! Just kidding girls... love you all!
I have been using the drift align functionality in PHD Guiding.... with mixed results.... but have also recently been trying the 120sec back and forth system you mention, and that seems to be pretty good.