Hi Brent, welcome to IIS.
It's all a bit confusing when you first start off. But don't worry you'll catch on soon enough.
Another prefix you'll come across is NGC = New General Catalogue.
eg. ngc253 is a nice bright galaxy also know as the "Silver Coin".
NGC104 is a globular cluster of stars which is also known as 47 Tucanae (abbreviated to 47 Tuc)
The Sombrero Galaxy that Rob mentioned is Messier 104 (M104).
What you really need to do is get yourself along to a star party.
It's the quickest way to learn.