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JP, the GSO 8" f5 Newt is a great all round scope, and is setup for imaging as delivered (some newts are not, as they are configured for visual only). To use the 8" f5 for imaging you just need a T-adaptor and bayonet fitting for your camera, and if you wish for pin point stars to the edges, a coma corrector.
If using the 8" ft visually you will need a 35mm extension tube, so that your eye pieces can achieve focus. Andrews may include that extension tube with that scope. Just confirm that with Luke.
Guiding is a pretty big subject. As you will be using a EQ mount, if it is precisely polar aligned then you can get away without guiding up to a point (that point being where drift starts to give the stars tails). Guiding uses, in your case, a small guide scope attached to the main scope, and that guide scope has a small camera on it. Using some software like PHD2, that little camera will track a guide star and give instructions to your mount (by a cable) to nudge it slightly to keep it precisely aimed at your imaging target. This allows very long exposures.
Now, if you can precisely align your mount, you can take images without guiding, as long as you keep your exposures short enough to avoid star tails, say 30 seconds.
In order to build signal data, you can stack many short exposures, to build the equivalent signal strength to a single longer guided type exposure. There are factors such as noise that come into play but for the purposes of simplicity here, that explains it enough turn you to get started.
I bet you don't know what Bortle is, as Martin uses it below, but don't stress about that. There is alot of jargon thrown around in astronomy, which is not easy or beginners to wade through.
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