Hi there Spike,
Your 12" lightbridge should give some great views, but dont expect photo like scenes. Galaxies appear as grey smudges in my 8" newt. with some hints of structure and dust lanes depending on the object of course.
Some good ones to start with would be:
- The Leo Triplet, M65 M66 and NGC 3628. These three will all fit into the fov of my 25mm at 40X. And they are reasonably bright.
- Centaurus A, Again bright for a galaxy and nice view with the 13mm Nagler. Dust lanes clearly visable.
- M104 The Sombrero.
- Of course when in season (spring) you cant go past the Andromeda galaxy M31.
With the help of charts and star hopping I regularly and fairly easily find galaxies down to mag 10 and still getting dimmer. I start with the telrad and 25mm lens to zero in and work from there. I find that the 13mm at 76X and sometimes barlowed (2.5X) is best for me. And of course
DARK SKIES.
Good luck but be warned, once you have found your first you will want to find another, and another, and.......................
