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Seriously, drift align for "perfect" polar alignment. Polar scopes will only get you so far -- you will end up with field rotation in your final image after lots of exposures.
While the rotation can be corrected for using software, you will end up with swirls of noise in faint regions of the image.
Anything worth doing, is worth doing properly -- no baby steps!
1. counterweight shaft horizontal;
2. point scope so that it is parallel with the RA housing on the mount (near the meridian);
3. watch a star drift;
4. make large-ish adjustment to azimuth knobs one way or the other;
5. if star drifts less over a given amount of time, then, make another adjustment;
6. if star drifts more over a given amount of time, then, make adjustment in other direction;
7. keep iterating until star doesn't move at/near meridian;
8. point scope somewhere with 20-degrees of western or eastern horizon;
9. watch a star drift;
10. make a not-too-large adjustment to altitude one way or the other;
11. if star drifts less over a given amount of time, then, make another adjustment;
12. if star drifts more over a given amount of time, then, make adjustment in other direction;
13. keep iterating until star doesn't move at/near horizon;
14. swing back to zenith/meridian and double-check star doesn't move;
15. if star still moves, go back to step 4.
Hope this helps!
H
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