[marki]

3 star allignment compensates for cone error (scope not perfectly parralell to polar axis) and rough polar alignment. It is far more forgiving then the 1 and 2 star alignment methods and does a fair job on my mount at least. It depends on what you intend to do? Visual star gazing or astrophotography. At this point it sounds like you just want to get the thing working? Visual only requires a rough setup which takes about 5 - 10 mins (depends on how far you need to lug your gear). Astrophotography requires you to drift align and can take a lot longer to get right. Either way these mounts are very capable.