Thanks Allan,
My window faces ENE towards the next door house, and the planisphere is for the southern hemisphere, it came in a book from Aus. Geo. when I bought the telescope... conveniently came with a red light too!
I have been using an app (Starwalk 2) to work out when the planets are due to 'rise', it also helps me find them in the sky. It could also possibly have been lack of night vision (I had gotten up for a drink of water from the fridge).
It is all very exciting. I have been looking at the Great Nebula, the pictures look nothing like what I saw, but I did find some lower quality images that did! So I know that the four stars I was seeing (at 11pm) were the 'trapezium' at the heart of the nebula.
http://www.laughton.com/paul/rfo/trap/trap.html
http://kellyricks.blogspot.com.au/20...at-nebula.html
Tonight I am going to pull out my journal and have a go at sketching what I see.
Another question... do the planets 'rise' in the same way that the moon/sun does. ie begin low on the horizon and pass over... or is it more like the ISS, where it can be higher on the horizon but disappear because the earth obstructs the light from the sun??