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Just to add to Les' comments, in the three years that I have been observing with a telescope, I have learnt to see far more in any object that I did when I first started out. That is, observing is a skill, and it requires a certain degree of practice and determination to improve.
Some objects have such complexity about them that if you are truly looking, you will learn something new every time you look at them. The Tarantula Nebula is one which I am spending a lot of time observing at the moment, because there is just SO much to see.
Other objects are extremely faint. As Les has said, there will often be only brief moments when you can actually see any significant detail, particular during times when the seeing is varying a lot. An example from my current observing predelictions is NGC 1365, the "Zorro Galaxy" as I call it. Under suburban skies in my 20 inch scope, the central bar is prominent with a cursory glance, but the spiral arms are not at all obvious. They take patience and careful examination to see. In poor seeing it can take 4 or 5 minutes before I have become confident of their exact location and form in terms of the overall field of view.
Many seasoned observers testify to the fact that they build up a mental library of what they have observed over the years. Each time they observe, they will bring to the subject a certain amount of memory from previous sessions, and in some way this helps them to see more at the present time, than another observer who has had less time looking at the same object in the past. It is something like an elite batsman in cricket who can anticipate and better see a cricket ball coming out of the hand of the bowler than an average player.
The message is keep looking, keep looking, keep looking. There is so much more to see than a cursory glance at an object will ever suggest.
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