Thanks to everyone for their advice. IIS is an incredible support network.
Just a quick response; I will be rereading all your advice again later.
Geoff, I will absolutely look into replacing the springs and screws; I will wait a couple of weeks before doing so and just see how things go. Your collimation advice, and Dave's and Dave's and others', is great. I will study it intensively and I'll be getting a sight tube and Barlow from Bintel on Friday or Saturday - the latter is both to help me with collimation and to double my eyepiece collection (thanks PCH). (Then I'll slowly buy some high quality eyepieces.) Excellent advice on eyepieces Brendan. You've helped me greatly.
Les - thanks again for your advice. I certainly didn't expect Hubble views, but perhaps my expectations last night were a bit high. As I posted, I managed to see an impressive view of Orion's nebula and Saturn in the 10mms. However, I expected there to be more detail or brightness than I saw last week in an 8" reflector pointed at Orion. I was STOKED to see Saturn, but I did expect to see more detail in the disc in the 10mm. But I won't be fazed; I'll keep practising and I really can't wait to go to a star party and really learn from experienced people like you!
I think my biggest concern last night that there might have been something wrong with the scope because it had been the display model in the store. Geoff has allayed that concern. Now I just need to be patient and practise, which is fine by me. And learn to collimate the damn thing properly!
Thanks again to all of you for your detailed responses. I really appreciate it.
Happy new year!
- DSB