Sharpcap polar alignment - whats your experience?

[Jerry Barnes]

I have been aligning using Sharpcap for a while and find it straightforward.  the Difficulties are really with the mount elevation bolts and not the software.

I do find that when reviewing guide logs PHD2 reports a much worse alignment than I achieved with Sharpcap.  For example last night I got 34" which was classed as good while PHD2 reported errors of 5' at on point and 16' at another.  The previous night I achieved 25" (excellent) and Sharcap reported 1.5' on the best 3 hours of the session.

The mount is on a solid base (concrete slab patio) so I dont think there is a problem there.  Maybe the mount isnt helping.

I'm not especially worried about it but I'm sort of curious.  Does anybody else see differences like this?

 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

I usually find phd2 reports a larger pa error than Sharpcap. I'm usually within 30" according to Sharpcap, but phd2 usually gives me a value of around 2 - 5 arc minutes. No problem for me - I'm happy as long as I'm getting good images.

Not sure which measurement is the most accurate; but I would think phd2.