I’ve never used a Skywatcher mount, so this may be way off base. When you power up a mount neurally assumes you have it in the expected “home” position. For an EQ mount, that would normally be pointing towards the celestial pole (NCP). I would check your manual to see what the Skywatcher expects or to see if you have inadvertently changed it.

Often the first align will actually do a sync, telling the mount “I’m pointing exactly here”. Sounds like that sync is expected to have already happened to say you are at the NCP.

I disagree that plate solving near the NCP is inaccurate. The polar alignment routine works by doing plate solves near the NCP and that works. I agree that any small errors will be magnified if you do a sync or align based on the plate solve very close to the pole, but it should not cause what you are seeing.

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