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Hi Ray,
I'm only a newbie too, but I write this from my recent experience and also from the advice of others in this forum. I started using my 10" scope with sky high expectations, but have since re-adjusted these.
If you are expecting to easily see galaxy spiral arms from your home in Sydney even with a 250mm dob, then you will most likely be dissapointed.
I live in a rural area where in town the skies are reasonably dark (I can see the milky way and SMC, LMC easily from my front yard), but even with my 250mm dob most galaxy spiral arms cannot be seen, and when they can be seen they are faint to say the least, just visible with averted vision.
On the other hand globular clusters are quite good and well resolved, even with a relatively bright moon in the sky. So the brighter clusters may be seen reasonably well from your home.
Also nebula do show up a lot better than galaxies (m42 looks awesome as do many others) and no doubt this will be helped when my UHC filter arrives. These also would be a lot better from a darker site.
For galaxies you need really dark skies as some members on this forum have reported from really dark sites much more success with 6" scopes than I have had with my 10" dob (which I am hoping to get to a dark site soon if the weather clears up).
As many on this forum have said the more you practice the more you will see, and even in my short experience this is true. Just don't expect to get your 8" or 10" scope and expect to see photograph like images through it.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
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