First DSO with my new mount

[nmoushon]

So I final got my first mount, an EQ-G Sirius. Luckily that night there was a couple hours before a winter storm rolled in so I was able to get a good hour in. Since it was my first time out I was at a bit of a loss trying to figure out how to polar align. I finally figured it...the manual is not a very good guide. But I could only get about 1min subs before star trails started showing. Is there a way to do some type of double check on polar alignment? Anyways focus is a bit out but got about 10min worth of subs here and critiques would be welcome.

[mallorcasaint]

Have you got a Polar Scope for your mount? It looks as if the mount is designed to take one of these. Once the polar scope is calibrated you can use it to ensure you are accurately polar aligned.

[nmoushon]

Sorry, yes I have a polar scope and I used it to polar align. Was wondering if there's a way to "double check" if I aligned good. Other than taking a couple longer exposures to find star trails. I would like to get at least up to 5min subs. Is that even possible with this mount and it not being guided?

[SJJ]

Nice image. I would think that 5 min subs is a big ask unguided without any trailling, I managed about 90 seconds of good tracking unguided, but it probably depends on your focal length. If you want to increase the length of your subs then try drift aligning after you have aligned with the polarscope, it's really not that difficult, just takes a bit more time at the start of the evening.