The telescope motor control has two functions that are beneficial to improve tracking without an autoguider.

The first is backlash compensation. This rewinds the worm gears, so that any time they change direction, there is no play or "slop" in the mechanism.

The second is periodic error correction (PEC). This one won't work correctly until the backlash compensation is set properly. To use it, you guide manually for ~8 minutes, and the controller keeps track of the corrections you make. These are then applied to the worm gear as it turns, so that the motor control becomes somewhat self correcting. This works best with a polar alignment, and it works best if you do the calibration with the telescope aimed approximately at the target you will photograph. An illuminated reticle is practically a must during the manual guiding step.

Depending on the F-Ratio of your scope and how careful you are doing the calibration, you can take pictures several minutes long (up to about 10)without any manual guiding.