Hi Owyman,
I am new too ...got a scope last Christmas (2009)...and I too was a little dissapointed when i first looked through....but .. i have since discovered there is a little more to it (for me) than mere images....
First piece of advice is get to a star party or local club...watch other astronomers do it...
The second piece of advice will be obvious after that.....get a chair....i was trying to observe for ages before i realised I needed a chair to sit in and wait for the right time to look through the eyepice (you may want a couple of beers to help pass the time...astronomy seems a lot like fishing in many ways!! ha ha)...(i have since made the astronomy chair in the projects section of this website which makes it a lot more enjoyable to observe from)
third piece of advice..read a little about space and stars and planets....many times what you are looking at is a faint blur or smudge...but I find if i know it is a galaxy with a million stars in it it is much more satisfying looking at it. Or finding out what galileo was able to deduce from the movement of the stars and planets etc with a telescope much worse than yours...(there are a lot of free resources to help you learn about space stuff...I really enjoy the SETI institute radio shows....
www.radio.seti.org )
Fourthly.....sit in your chair and look at the stars with your eyes...its enjoyable to become familiar with the sky at night...associating seasons with constellations....knowing where and when planets appear...connecting with ancestry or thousands of years who have looked to the sky and wondered.
Thats what I enjoy...It sort of connects you to the bigger picture......
Stick with it
Steve