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Hi Jerous,
I'll take some of your points in turn first.
The 6mm EP you picked up from Sylvain is one brilliant EP. I've got the 6mm too, and the 9mm. The blacks do appear blacker, yes, first by the increased magnification, but also the better quality of the lens design and the quality of the coatings reducing scatter and internal reflections.
You did the right thing with allowing Saturn drift through the field of view (FOV). The term you used is the right one too, of 'drift viewing'.
Finders can be tricky things to get used to. However, I don't think a laser pointer is the best way to go. As you said, there are issues with lasers in urban areas, and a 1mW laser isn't useful at all in light polluted skies- it's too faint. And at the dark sky sites of many clubs, they will KILL you if the beam strays into the path of someones photo area!
An alternative is a Red Spot Finder (RSF). These little gizmos use a holographic glass to reflect an LED light back to you. This holographic effect sees the red dot not move from the place it appears to be sitting on on the sky. This way you can use both eyes to aim a scope without any problems of parallax. Your son can then have a quick squiz through the scope and see where the scope is aimed.
I use an RSF on top of a traditional finder on my big dob. The RSF does the gross alignment, the traditional finder does the fine alignment. I also find that the RSF is sometimes the only finder I use, as they are very accurate, and a low power eyepiece will serve you very well to pin down the DSO. I also use an RSF exclusively on my 8" dob too.
There is one bit of gear that you may find really useful, costs bugger all, and you'll find yourself using it for years to come, a planisphere. While computer based programs like Stellarium are fine, in the field they are not always practical. Planispheres are fantastic to use in the city as they show only the brightest stars, making them very good to quickly identify the constellations. When then used in conjunction with finer charts or Stellarium, the process of finding DSO's becomes an easier task.
I cut my teeth with a planisphere, and I still use mine 20 years later. Today it's more of a planning tool to show me what constellations are up, and then decide on the areas I like to search out.
Planispheres usually also have marked on them the brighter DSO's. This makes them especially useful as a beginners tool. No good trying to chase down a faint galaxy if you don't know how to use the scope or what to expect.
From my home in Sydney, I also need to use binos, where I'm using my smaller or larger scopes. In the big smoke they help show those stars that light pollution swamps.
You may also like to look in the Star Parties forum for local sessions of meets. Around Sydney there are monthly gatherings to the north, west and south. Sessions are also held in the metro areas of Sydney too.
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