G'day DSB and congrats on the new scope.
I think the previous replies to your questions have pretty well covered the subject but I'm wondering about the obvious - you mention that you're viewing from the balcony of your unit. Are you turning off all the lights in the room behind you? It's not just dark skies that you need for good viewing. A dark environment is essential also. Any stray light around your person will also contribute to degraded viewing.
As I say, I'm probably mentioning the obvious and if so I apologise. Mind you, my first few viewing sessions were hampered by poor viewing and it took me a while to realise that in my eagerness to start viewing, I wasn't allowing time for the mirror to cool down enough.
We're all newbies at some time.
I'm sure you'll get things sorted eventually. Good luck!
