No AutoStar + how to use setting circles

Hi,

I am one of those guys who bought a meade etx 125 ec WITHOUT autoStar.
The idea of not buying autostar was to be able to learn by virtue of
doing things the hard way.

Assumptions : (pls correct me if i am wrong)
1. What i know roughly is that if i polar align my telescope then i
can just dial in the address of a star in my telescope and voila (
firstly is this assumption correct )...
2. if you have autostar then you just need to "show" it two stars and
it calculates all the relative positions, after which you ask for a
star it calculates it and takes the telescope there. ( no alignment of
any sort required - other then it being on flat surface )

what i want to know
1. is there a software by which i do the what GOTO achieves. go to
wellknown stars, note the setting circle values on my telescope, enter
it in the magic software and then i ask for a known address and it
tells me what should the values on my settings circles should be ...
Realise this is without polar alignment..(i have telescope with poor
man's ALT-Azimuth mount)

2. what's the use of setting circles w/o polar aligning the
telescope.

any help in this regards will be greatly appreciated.

-Premal
(premal_jhaveri*hotmail*com)