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Hi Shelley,
Congrats on the new scope, a 10" is a great instrument. Don't worry too much if you don't find everything you look for first up. We all have our ways of finding objects. I printed off star maps that covered the sky I could see, making sure the constellation stick figure and brightest stars were easy to see. These were inserted into plastic sleeves and a red torch used. I also made sure the DSO's I wanted to find were clearly indicated. My best aid to align the scope to the area of interest was the Telrad. I used it far more than the viewfinder. I also used standard geometric shapes to pinpoint DSO's, eg lines from one star through another star, pointing to the object or triangles using a couple of bright stars as the base to point to the target. A low power eyepiece (eg 25mm) is a good choice for finding - something like a 10mm just makes finding more difficult. Sometimes I just went outside with a low power eyepiece and just scanned the sky, not caring which constellation I was in. I hope you have many more enjoyable nights viewing. Cheers, Paul.
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