I have found that it helps significantly if I have a good "plan of attack" for each night when I observe. The document at the right shows one of these "observing plans". This plan serves as a checklist to make sure that I have followed all the steps in the initialization process (that I have the mount well balanced and aligned -- including polar aligned).

I am using a Losmandy G11 with Gemini. I find that the Gemini Polar Alignment Correction (step 8) does wonderful job in polar aligning the mount. The key is to find a star on the celestial equator and on the meridian.

During the observations, my generic process is to "GoTo" a bright star near my object of interest. check alignment (and do a Additional Alignment with Gemini) and focus (using ImagesPlus), and then slew to the desired object. It will then be in the Field of View.

I also use this observing plan to record the objects I actually imaged by changing the fonts to highlight what I actually accomplished. (The Night View mode of Cartes du Ciel carries over into Word and ImagesPlus to preserve night vision.)