Gave Alignmaster another crack. Much better result this time as far as the procedure goes. I still found slewing to that initial star a little tricky so I put a 24mm EP in, centred (Canopus) quickly in that and then replaced the 24mm with the 10mm illuminated reticle EP to get accuracy. The only thing I did notice was that when I went to adjust the ALT bolts after getting the second star aligned (Acrux) the star would not hit centre but close (slightly under) no matter which way I adjusted the bolts as opposed to dead centre for the AZ bolts. Not sure why unless I knocked something?
Didn't try again as I was keen to give PHD a go. Got that all working once again as far as 'procedure' goes so pretty happy there but the graph looked a little wonky maybe since my alignment was not spot. Although of course the ****loads of other permutations with settings etc. might just have something to do with it as well.
Anyway - happy days as Brendan would say
. Very pleased to get things moving along and start beating that learning curve around a bit!
Cheers
Dave