[renormalised (Carl)]

Like the others have said, it would be good for you to join your local club as they will be able to point you in the right direction with the use of your scope. Don't get discouraged, you have a wonderful scope. Once you've gained some knowledge about the night sky and where to look for the objects you're interested in, you'll see just how powerful it is. I think your main problem is that you have no experience at all with observing through a telescope. You have to remember that your eyes are nowhere near as sensitive as the devices they use to take the pictures you see in books and on sites like this. Unless it's an extremely bright or close nebula, all you'll see is just varying shades of grey and maybe a bit of green. The bigger the scope, the greater the chance you'll have of seeing some colour but it'll be very subtle.

What you need to do is to buy yourself some good star charts so you can find what you're looking for. Even charts as simple as those out of an astronomy magazine like Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, The Sky at Night, etc, will do and be of great benefit to you. If you have a computer I would also suggest that you grab yourself some good astronomy software as well, but for now it's best to start off simple and work your way upto that level. Any of us here will help you with choosing the software you'll need when you're ready. The worst part about living in a large city is that the light pollution can be so bad that hardly any stars can be seen at all. Even familiar constellations like Leo and Virgo can be almost completely drowned out by the light dome over the city. There's no need for all the lighting, it's a waste of energy and doesn't deter people from getting upto nefarious dealings.

What I would suggest to you is to get yourself those charts I mentioned, a good red light torch as it will help preserve your night vision and then go outside in a darker area where you can see the stars. Say up at your friends place. Then just use the chart to try and find the patterns of the constellations in the night sky. Some will be easy, like Scorpio, Sagittarius, Crux (The Southern Cross), others will be harder like Vela, Scutum, Hydra etc. It's always good to have someone there who knows their way around the sky as they'll be able to point out the more difficult constellations for you. That way you'll learn your way around the sky. Once you've done this a number of times, you'll get the hang of things. Like anything else, practice helps and more often you do it, the better you'll be at it.

Tonight, if it's not too cloudy at the time, setup your scope and look for a very bright, starlike object out in the east. Go out around about 10pm and you'll see it. Put in a low powered eyepiece (look for one that says 25mm or so...or the largest you have) and point the scope at it. It's the planet Jupiter. You should also be able to see tiny starlike objects close to the planet. They're the Galilean Moons....you may see all four of them or you may see only one, but most of the time two or three are visible. Once you've spotted the planet, if you want a good close up view, swap the low powered eyepiece out for your smaller eyepiece.