hey thunderchild, did ya get thet moon atlass, i pm'd you the link..??and also a link for a red dot finder..this saved me hours of frustration, when you start looking for dso's you will relish it..trust me
..i bet it won't be long untill your out there hunting down the messier list,I was fortunate when i started scorpious was high in the east and i could locate a good handfull of messier objects from the printed maps in one evening...its when i truely got addicted, there are still heaps of dso's to see this time of year..the magellenic clouds are optimal for viewing at the moment, and the good thing is dso's love lower powers of mag..also have a look for tucana 47 and the eta carina, all in the south...
enjoy