Cashshadow

Thank you both for the replies. I did align the 8SE with the default hand controller before and it did work properly. I am also starting the alignment with the telescope level - I did not point it south but I will give that a shot. I made sure the camera cap was off the Starsense as well - I did leave it on the first time I ever used it but that was before the Starsense was properly aligned. Someone else suggested to update the Firmware which I did and I definitely made sure to triple check that the time and location were absolutely accurate. When I drove to the cottage a few hours away, that was the first time I ever used Starsense and I did select a different location on the controller that was much closer to where I was rather than my home town. I did have space to move the optical tube of the telescope a bit further up which doesn't allow the star diagonal to touch the mount now even when it's vertical - thank you for that. I will try again tonight and aim it due south before I start the alignment. I have a small feeling that it could be the batteries I was using are starting to die off due to the cold weather so I replaced the batteries a few minutes ago and will give it a go. When I first had the successful alignment, I did have a fresh set of batteries inside the scope - I really hope it's something as small as that. Thank you both again, I will update tonight with the results. Edit: It was the damn batteries all along! I replaced them and everything worked perfectly! Looks like I'll need to purchase a rechargeable battery tank/pack to carry around if anyone has any recommendations.

Good Evening everyone, I recently purchased a Celestron Starsense to use with my Nexstar 8SE. I drove a few hours away from the city and set everything up and the alignment worked perfectly - I calibrated it (which is recommended for the first time use) and was enjoying ooking at M13, M31, M57 and a few planets. About an hour in, I wanted to take a look at Uranus and while it was moving to its location, the telescope turned almost vertical and the star diagonal hit the mount. I was worried about it potentially damaging the telescope so I turned it off and tried to realign it. Ever since I did that, I've had absolutely no luck aligning the telescope. I've constantly reset the telescope to horizontal position but all it does when I attempt to align it is either start looking at the ground, or start looking almost vertically in the sky again. I took it home and updated the firmware on the controller and camera to the newest firmware and recently went to the park to try and see if that would fix it but here I am still with no luck. The optical tube was still pointed almost vertically and even though it gave me the "alignment complete" on the controller, it was completely out of whack. Any ideas or recommendations on what to do? I've double checked my time, date, DST and location numerous times on the handheld and they're all accurate.