Ok Psyche, lets see where you are up to! If you are following the manual, you are probably doing all of these things, so I don't mean to sound patronising, but it doesn't hurt to double check!
I have found that, as long as the two stars aren't too close to eachother in the sky, this scope will align well with Two Star Alignment. You may wish to try this and see how it goes.
1. OTA (tube) is level with the ground (I use a spirit level)
2. OTA is pointing north (compass)
3. Date is in US format (month/day/year, not day/month/year)
4. Time Zone = 10
5. I don't know if you are selecting "Nearest City", I enter the latitude and longitude of where I am. You find this at
this web site. Make sure, however, you use their converter to convert their decimal figures into "minutes" and "seconds".
6. Check that the star that you are looking at is, in fact, the star that you are selecting by name using the hand controller. ie make sure you have the right name for the right star.
I think that's it - I may have overlooked something that someone else may pick up on.
As far as viewing goes, even at 25X you will see the rings of Saturn (although now is not the best time of year to be viewing Saturn). You will see some nebulae, but not with all the colours you see in all the great photos shown here! Star clusters look great through this scope. A favourite of mine is the Butterfly Cluster in Scorpius (M6 if you get your alignment sorted!). Galaxies are quite dim - difficult to sometimes see or make out, depending on your conditions. But you have to remember it is a 4" telescope and can only let in so much light!
Good Luck,
Mark
