Lee,
The most important thing with Galaxies (and all objects) is to look at them for an extended period. I believe Galaxies need this attention more so. At first you may see a fuzzy shape and get excited! Then if you can force yourself to stay looking at it you may start to notice more detail.
Our eyes have to be trained to know what to look for, and the more you study galaxies the better the detail. It may seem like the Seeing level went up, but it is actually your eyes learning what to look for. Even on my favourite often observed galaxies I still spend 15 - 20 minutes on each one searching for even more detail. You will find that on the 2nd occasion it will be easier, because you have already learnt what it looked like last time and then you will notice even more detail than the last time. Obviously you will eventually reach a point where the image can't get any better
Good quality EP's help of course too, but even a $1000 EP won't show you much if you only look at the object for 30 seconds then move along to the next one.
It's all a matter of 'Observing' not just 'looking'.
