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Thanks for all the useful replies, they reflect my own experience with this. I live on the edge of the southern ocean at about 100 metres elevation with a clear sky in front of me (west), to the east, mountain, south has large trees then the sea and north a bit more sky space. I have a sun room so use a window, there's no lights anywhere except the glow of Hobart to the NW. I decided to get into astronomy a couple of months ago after we spent a calm clear night at sea fishing for tuna, the stars came down to the water all around us and I wished I had a telescope with me. We also get a lot of Aura's down here as well as the green glow which emanates from the Antarctic at times.
I lined it up on a mountain to the west and had lots of trouble getting it to stay still. The line up scope just won't line up with the scope at all, there's no enough adjustment but it does focus so I gave it away and use the method we used in the navy, barrel line of sight.
I understand I couldn't see the surface of Venus, but thought I was looking at it and yes the craters and lines I expect would be defects, although when I bought this at an auction it had only been taken out of the box to have a look at and then sat on the stand and was never used, so it may have dust or anything on the mirror and lenses.
I'll take all your advice and will have a play with the 30mm, but the stars I've looked at have been fuzzy or blurred so I hope to get a look at the moon when the rain and clouds go away, then I will have more of an idea.
I have a set of 20x50 binoculars and a bloke has told me he has a Meade 60AZ-D Refracting Telescope he wants to sell for about $100, so could some one tell me if this would be the way to go for a start.
Thanks again for the help.
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