hi bowzer,
if you are looking at say a galaxy that is mag 9 and you have a full moon the chances are you wont see it. whe there is no moon (new moon) you will see a hell of alot more, but even then your mag9 galaxy is likely to show up and no more then a grey smudge (a faint one at that). under dark skies you may see detail like stars and some shape in that mag9 galaxy.
I hope that puts what you are seeing in some perspective
mag9 is
very dim.