Many cheap scopes come mounted on a German Equatorial Mounts (GEM). These mounts can be confusing to use when you first get them. If not setup properly tracking an object across the sky can be extremly diffcult, but when properly setup tracking something is as simple as turning one knob.
First a few terms:
Right Ascention (RA). East and west in the sky. Once a GEM is setup properly, you can track an object by simply slowly moving the RA axis of the mount.
Declination (DEC). North and south in the sky. If you have a gem setup exactly right you will not have to move the DEC axis to track an object.
Latitude. Your position on earth, either north or south of the equator.
Typical small GEM:
To setup a GEM the first thing you need to do is set your latitude. You do this by raising or lowering the the RA axis until it matches your lattitude. You can use a gps to find your lattitude, a map, or you can use on of many sites on the internet that will give you a lattitude for a given zip code.
Once you have the RA axis set to your latitude, you simply point the RA axis north. NOTE: True north is normally not the same as the "magnetic north" a compass will display. The North Star is a good guide, it is a half a degree (at the most) from true north.
As long as you are not taking long exposure photographs you don't need to have your alignment exact. For visual work it is fairly easy to get close enough to track an object for 20 or 30 minutes without it drifting out of the eye piece.
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