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Tim,
Forgot some suggestions re charts:
You don't have to spend any $'s at all - there's much available for free on the Internet. Of course, there are also plenty of nice books available to buy if you want something physical. I suggest the best book to begin with is "Atlas of the Southern Night Sky" by Steve Massey.
A good starting point online is "Skymaps" (skymap.com). This has free downloadable monthly all-sky charts, plus lists of celestial events and currently-observable objects. There are also quite a few free "planetarium" apps for smartphones and Ipads/tablets. A couple are "Stellarium" and "Skyportal". Some enable you to "point" your device at the sky, then detail what you are looking at.
Also suggest you search out the following online: "beginners_star_atlas", "deepskywatch_charts" and "Mag_7_Star_Atlas", for downloadable charts. Various levels of detail are available. For finding objects in particular constellations, "Night-Sky Objects for Southern Observers By Rob Horvat" online, is useful.
Enjoy!
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