I used it last night and it worked great! Was able to see the Moon, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter. I figured out the manual adjustment after alignment and also fixed the focussing issue which all helped a lot. Moving forward, whats the best way to see more detailed pictures of the planets and also seeing deep space objects? Would it be to get an eyepiece with higher focal length? I haven't used the Barlow lens yet... would that help? I guess the constraints would be the diameter of the telescope itself and the all of the Los Angeles light pollution.
I must say it is a privilege to get this perspective on our existence. It really put me in my place.