Keep in mind (if this isn't obvious to you already, in which case I apologize) that the adjustments you make to your mount, and the resulting motion of the star within the image will be diametrically opposite. To use a hypothetical example, say that you use the polar alignment utility, and it tells you that the NCP is 30 arcminutes up and to the left of your current center of rotation. That is, you need to adjust your mount's polar alt/az knobs to bring your RA axis upward and leftward by 30 arcminutes. When you do this, the camera moves up and to the left, so the star will appear to move down and to the right within the frame. Once you've finished correcting for the polar alignment error, the star will be 30 arcminutes down and to the right of its original position in the image, the opposite direction of the adjustment you made.

Another observation that I can offer, as someone who likewise has struggled with getting accurate polar alignment, is that the adjustments you will need to make to the mount's alt/az knobs are very small. For reference, if you own a Telrad, 30 arcminutes is the angular diameter of the smallest circle at the center of the reticle. You may end up only turning the knob 1/16 of a turn, or something of that magnitude. I usually try to take it slow, check the refresh images, and make the smallest possible adjustments that I'm physically capable of making until eventually I get there.

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