Thanks Martin, I think that I'm being too critical and as a result hindering myself from making any progress. I need to chill out a bit more as my 12yo says.
I managed a two hour session last night with new settings when I saw a break in the clouds and hope to process the data when I find the time. And.... I left the pier outside set up all leveled and polar aligned for the next session. I looked outside earlier and it looked like rain could be coming tonight so I packed the pier and brought it back inside again
I'm a bit anal about keeping everything in pristine condition... this needs to change as I'm getting up in years and everything is getting too heavy to lug around.
My scope and camera gear can be easily removed from the mount for storage at the end of the night as it's all mounted on a dual saddle side-by-side system. All that requires connecting to set up are the cables to the mount, power and laptop.
Cheers
Rocky