Eq mount and tracking

[Skinnypuppy71]

Hi folks.I feel that this might be a stupid question, but after polar alignment and two or three star alingment on my skywatcher eqm-35 pro...when I start viewing objects, does the mount start tracking to it's best abilities or do I need to go back into the menu and select the sidereal tracking option or pec + Sidereal....the instructions are very sketchy on this....it's just my stars have been trailing even with just 30 second exposures when I just go straight to viewing objects after alingment process.....but the other night I decided to go into the menu and I went into the tracking options and selected the pec+ sidereal.....50 secs and the stars were nice and sharp...so does the tracker go into a easy tracking mode to start with and I have to select the more accurate mode.....or did I just nail polar alignment....the instructions for these mounts aren't very beginner friendly.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Skinnypuppy71

[Freddie]

The mount will track at sidereal rate as standard. You can improve tracking by using PEC but you would need to train it first.

[Skinnypuppy71]

I just remembered also, I did do a three star alignment  as opposed to the usual two star. I think maybe this could be why my tracking was better.

[The Lazy Astronomer]

3 hours ago, Skinnypuppy71 said:

I just remembered also, I did do a three star alignment  as opposed to the usual two star. I think maybe this could be why my tracking was better.

I don't think the stsr alignment process has any bearing on the tracking accuracy, just makes the initial goto slew more accurate.