Hello there ! HelP mEe ^^

[Pocky]

Hello there everyone hope you're all well!  I'm another newbie to the hobby and have been lurking in the shadows for a while haha. I have very little knowledge >.<

So I bought myself my 1st telescope a few months back a Celestron Nexstar se8, used it a few times loved it.  I've had lots of trouble aligning the thing so I've also bought a starsense auto aligner to try and help make it easier (Though I've not had a chance to use it yet)

At which point my money was running out lol so I bought a Bresser full HD deep-sky camera (it was cheapish and had a good review)

When it comes to lenses I only have the basic one that came with it..  I was wondering what lenses would you smart folk suggest for this telescope to start out with?  There are so many brands and sizes. Oh I bought a x2 Barlow as well I heard they were kinda essential?

Thanks for reading and hello ^^

[Cosmic Geoff]

If you are having trouble aligning the C8 SE, a Starsense is not necessarily going to help.  You need to find out why you are having trouble, and sort it.   The Nexstar system on an Alt-Az mount is  almost as simple as it gets. You should try aligning an equatorial Sywatcher Synscan...  😦

Basically, to align the C8 SE, get the tripod level - placing the bubble level supplied temporarily on the top plate (on my second hand kit it came attached to the lower mount with a bit of sticky but should be used on the top plate)

Make sure the time, date, location are entered in the right format and match your location and time zone and daylight saving. Causes endless fun for unwary newbies.

Then do a two star auto align (or one star align, or Solar System align - your choice.)  Just Read The Manual.

As for the Starsense, once set up, it works well and is a good complement to the C8 SE in a quick deploy carry out setup.  I have found that with the Starsense attached it is not necessary to level the tripod providing you are using it on a hard surface e.g. patio or backyard concrete.  The initial setup is not straightforward though, and the manual is about as easy to follow as  BSc physics course. The manual contains at least one critical error:

Starsense Manual - First Time Setup - Calibrate Centre,

paragraph 2.  ...in that region of sky.

Press ALIGN. Centre the star. (coarse align) (fine align) as 3. below (handwritten addition)

3. Attach your widest angle/lowest power eyepiece...

As for eyepieces, you really need to add to the 25mm that came with it.  You will get 57 kinds of advice about this, but I suggest a 15mm Celestron Omni Plossl and a 8mm or 10mm of whatever eyepiece model takes your fancy.  And maybe a cheap 8-24 mm zoom.  And leave the Barlow in its box; you don't need it with a f10 SCT, except for planetary imaging.

I can't comment on the "Bresser full HD deep-sky camera" as this seems to be a generic trade name. 

I hope all this helps.