Marking the cloth when aiming

I'm a SL3 in APA, and still use the tip of the cue stick to line up my shots and find center of ghost ball. Last night I realized if I chalked preshot, I would often leave a mark on the table where I put it down. How can I avoid that? No one has said anything about it, but I don't like feeling like I am cheating or get to vegas and someone calls it on me then.

Is the solution better chalk, or something else.