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Hi there DJVege,
I have a 4.5" scope and I can see easily down to 9.5 mag. This was with the standard eye pieces that came with my scope which in my case were not very good quality. I just recently purchased two good quality eye pieces. I am waiting for the moon to go away so that I can try them out and see if I can see any fainter than that. I have already noted a huge difference in what I am seeing (pin point stars in the backround where ever I look that were not visable before).
So what I am saying is you have a 5" scope which doesn't seem much bigger, but it will actually catch quite a bit more light than mine, so if you have reasonably dark skys as you say you will probably be surprised.
As Blue Ski's says though, sometimes magnitude alone is not really an indication of whether you can see it or not. Surface area has a lot to do with it also.
For instance NGC 5128 is a galaxy, near omega centuri, it is listed in my software as being mag7. When i look at it I can just make out a very faint glo, so faint that you almost wonder if you have found it at all. The only reason you know is that when you move the scope the faint glo moves with the other stars etc. Anyway I can see m57 the Ring nebula quite clearly, even with the moon up, and it is listed at mag9. the difference is, that m57 is small and the light is concentrated in that small area, NGC5128 is a galaxy and although the amount of light emitted is more, it is spread out a lot further and therefore appears fainter to the eye.
Moral of this story, as I have found with several objects, is you will never know until you try each object. As Ken has said you have to gauge seeing, transparency etc also, so just because you cannot see it on one night, doesn't mean you will never see it, if the seeing is better on another night you may see it.
Please remember that I am just a beginner, so this advise comes from my experience with my scope and someone with more knowledge may like to correct some of the explanations I have given. However because our scopes are similar in size I thought this info may help.
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