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Hi Gavanco
You raise an interesting point, I shall keep a watch on this thread for my own benefit but heres my thoughts.
Most of my viewing takes place from my backyard and recently while searching out M33 (spiral Galaxy) I discovered that a star I was using to guide me towards the target was actually of a dimmer magnitude than the galaxy itself. I could see the star but not find the galaxy and this is purely down to the light pollution as i get lower in the sky. So long as you have this pollution, I don't think you will be able to develop any rule of thumb to determine what you will and wont be able to see.
I am pondering the same issues as you it seems and am setting myself targets to find stars of ever diminishing magnitude to see what the limits are for my equipment. But even then in order for this to be a consistent guide the seeing and transparency must be matched. Sometimes you wont be able to see objects that you have viewed previously or their appearance will differ and its all down to conditions provided your equipment setup hasn't changed.
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