Update - back from the balcony. Quite windy out there this evening, not enough to blow the entire wig off, but certainly lost a few strands.
The Plossl 9mm eyepiece I used first worked well, but the 25mm Super Plossl eyepiece seemed to provide a better view of things (as was also outlined in the User Manual).
From the balcony I have the Plough directly in front of me and what I believe would be Saturn behind some buildings at about the 8 o'clock position as I stare open-mouthed at the Plough. Will be interesting to see how well I can capture that or Jupiter if I can get access to them in the coming weeks (if that's even how the universe works).
Homework for me (but would appreciate pointers if you have them, particularly from @Ricochet who looks like he/she has the same telescope as me!) --->
1. Read up (via your wonderful forum here) more about what I'm seeing being inverted. Not a major issue, just out of interest I will read more (or find a way to hang like a fruitbat while looking through the eyepiece which may resolve the issue).
2. How useful it is setting the "coordinates" of the RA and Dec to locate specific stars/constellations - do any of you actually do this?
3. The User Guide for my telescope states that "A favourite Winter object: M42, the great Orion Nebula". I notice in their picture that they have a milky-way (again, you're wincing for my lack of understanding of astrojargon) - does anyone here see such milky goodness (again, I'm on a NT 150 L Newtonian Reflector 150/1200 f/8.0 Bresser Messier with a 25mm and 9mm eyepiece) or they see what I seemed to capture this evening which was "just" pinhead-sized dots. I have a suspicion (possibly due to wind/atmospheric conditions/utter incompetence) that tonight I couldn't go "deep enough" (stop sniggering at the back there).
Thanks again.