For the fourth night tonight I braved the mosquitos and muggy weather to hopefully see something more than just the moon. Mars still disappoints me, well not such much the planet but my scope. I did the out of focus thing to check alignment and it looks pretty good. I did have some success with Jupiter though. With the barlow lens and a 12.5mm eyepiece I managed to focus enough to see two faint but distinctive rings..Really unhappy with the tripod and adjustments so I won't be attempting any more planet gazing with this. I was going to buy a plossl eyepiece though to see how much difference there is, at least if I then buy a "real" telescope I will have a descent eyepiece for it. Thanks for all the replies and help, Matt I think that taking that big cap of the end made the difference
Goodonya!