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Hey Patrick,
Welcome aboard the Dob train!
Piece of cake, it's a case of point and stare, with the ol' dobsonian.
Do yourself a favour and buy a star wheel if you haven't already got one, the one I got from York Optical has a nifty little card which helps you track down where the planets are (if they aren't that obvious, like Jupiter which is blazing away right now and you cannot miss.)
Looking for stars is easy too, depending on which one you are trying for, star hopping to galaxies and such are quite simple when you get the hang of the finder scope and which constellation is which.
It also pays to have a NICE wide angle or low power eyepiece for scouting the area where you think the thing you are looking for is hiding. I have a 68 degree 30mm 2" eyepiece (which gives me 50x mag in my 1500mm Focal length scope [divide FL by the EP FL, e.g 1500/30=50x]) I got from Andrews Comms which I use as my scouting eyepiece to get me in the neighbourhood, I see what I think is what I am looking for, and then swap out to a 12.5mm [1500/12.5=120x] to zoom in on the object and voila! most of the time, its smack bang in the middle of the view.
Some nice things to try your hand at are;
Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, 47 Tucanae (Globular cluster near the SMC), the Tarantula Nebula in the LMC, HEAPS of nebulae and globulars around Scorpius (the big question mark thingy overhead around 9pm) and Sagittarius (looks like a triangular teapot) which has lots of nice fuzzies to look at, most of which you will spot as a smudge in the finder, but when you look in the eyepiece will look amazing.
Take your time and you will have a ball!
I hope this helps you pick out some things to start with.
Enjoy!
Cheers
Chris
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