Originally posted by Grey Area: I wish someone with more experience than me would do a full "how to"...
I'm in the middle of putting a site about just that
here. The Astrophoto 101 section of the "how to" menu explains my workflow from planning to the actual shooting.
Position and elevation matters most with longer lenses above 100 mm. I think it has to do with the fact that when shooting near the horizon the compass can measure the azimuth more precisely then when the camera is aiming near the zenith. I you shoot straight at polaris it is very easy for the tracer to simply rotate the sensor,
I recalibrate every time I see star trailling going up. Again, that happens more often with longer lenses. With 16 to 28 mm lenses sometimes don't calibrate at all and get long precise tracking.
If the camera and lens don't communicate usually the first thing you're promted to do on startup is to input the focal length, that's how it knows.
Clear skies!