[Waratah (Chris)]

So I have been reading some basic astronomy books and my planisphere for about a month, staring up at the sky most clear nights.

I have binoculars and a field scope I use for birdwatching. Standing in suburban Sydney.

Apart from Crux I really can't seem to locate any constellations. I can pick out the tail of Scorpius, but that's about it. I look at the Moon but can't relate any features to anything in my books. I can identify Venus and Mars. The star atlas PDF's here are a wall of confusion, as are most of the star maps in my books.

Can someone please give me some guideposts of how to progress my learning of constellations?

Thanks,

Chris